Sottrazione della bellezza

2022

An alpine landscape of rocky peaks under low cloud, a thin waterfall running down the centre, with a black circular void burned into the sky and fading outwards like a dark halo.

A triptych on white: the alpine view with its dark void, the same scene darkened behind a black ridge, and a third frame almost entirely black with one small pale disc.

Installation view: the three framed prints hung in a row on a white wall, each darker than the last, seen at an angle in raking light.

The work comes out of the need to speak about the change and the loss, ever more evident, of the nature around us. I chose the mountain, fragile and majestic — the landscape of Val Ferret struck by the landslide in the summer of 2022 — as the symbol of a change that grows ever more dramatic. Transience is inherent in nature; the natural factors that transform and alter the landscape are endogenous and exogenous forces, but the human activity that has always reshaped it has caused grave damage over the centuries, altering and destroying many natural environments. The destruction is under way and the beauty around us is in serious danger. The work is built on a sequence of three images: a contrast between beauty and darkness, real and unreal, present and not-yet future; presence and subtraction. The sequence is an invitation to reflect on the destruction under way and on the urgency of change as an action that is necessary and still possible.