Già visto, mai visto

2021

Two digital print on silk 20 x 28 cm
digital print on satin 97 x 138 cm
book 16.8 x 24 cm

How does the process of visual nourishment and emotional knowledge of a place occur? What sticks in the memory? What impresses the eyes? The work explores the relationship between memory, open-eyed and closed-eyed visions, starting from the consideration that visual perception goes beyond the moment of open-eyed observation. The work takes the form of silk prints in different formats and a book with images corresponding to different states of consciousness (waking, sleeping) and observation (eyes open and eyes closed). Different images follow one another in the book. Photographs of the view of Lake Orta taken, at every hour of the day, by a webcam. The same images are then presented with eyes closed. When the eyes close, the image does not disappear immediately, but stops to keep us company, an echo remains to be seen. Other images are added to the image imprinted in the eye (and mind). The residual activity of the visual receptors continues.

"Già visto, mai visto #2", 2021

"Già visto, mai visto", 2021

Passing from wakefulness to sleep, a photographic image of Omegna, which has ‘impressed’ my visual memory, resurfaces and replaces the others. As the simulation of visual amplitude gradually disappears, we find ourselves beyond the threshold of the waking state. A drawing linked to the territory is evoked by the previous image. The signs that surface refer (conceptually and stylistically) to the eye movements that each of us makes in exploring what we see. The dream begins: all the images combine together in the dark, giving rise to a new vision. In these images on the edge of reality, the rules that dominate the world with open eyes no longer apply.