Cardiocinesi (series)
2025
The series of works emerge from the urge to engage with the discovery of documents, photographs, and drawings produced by my grand-grandfather E.M. in Somalia in the
1920s and 1930s during the Italian colonial occupation. E.M. was a military officer in the Italian Fascist Army und thus involved in the crimes of the regime in Africa. Using processes based on analog reproduction and inversion of forms and images, the works are to be understood as a honest critical reflection on individuality in relation with its collective and historical context, focusing on concept of responsibility, heritage and political awareness.
Mogadiscio 1932
2025
Paper made of oleander leaves
80 x 135 cm
This piece consists in a paper pattern of a military jacket, realized 1:1 from a photograph of E.M. in Somalia. The paper used in this piece was produced with oleander leaves. The oleander is a deadly toxic plant native of the mediterranean area, where is widely used as decoration in private and public spaces. Considering the jacket – and clothing – as something deriving from a context, the work reflects on topics of choices, heritage and self-doubt.
Carta corografica della Somalia italiana
2025
Pinhole photographs, graph paper
29,7 x 21 cm, 29,7 x 42 cm, 29,7 x 42 cm
The photographic negatives presented as parts of Carta corografica della Somalia italiana were taken with a selfmade analog pinhole camera, attempting to photograph of military chorographic maps of Somalia and Ethiopiafrom the 1930s drawn by E.M. during its service for the italian colonial army. The use of an extremely simple analogue photography technique reduces the distance between the photographed subject and the photographing one, physically connecting the latter with the materiality of the photographic process. The result are ghostly pictures almost expressing a fading (shared) memory, underlining the attempt to critically look back to my family and country history as something to not confine the harmless spaces of historiography and museums.
Cardiocinesi (Enna 1920)
2025
Paraffin, infusion of oleander leaves and flowers, rubber, steel, pump
Variable dimensions
One of my grand-grandfahter found drawings depicts a vase with reliefs (stereo)typical of the italian and mediterranean terracotta tradition, featuring a lion, leaves and garlands. I realized two negative casts in paraffin of what could have been the negative mold of this vase — if it had existed. In the installation Cardiocinesi, comprehending the works of this series and exhibited in multiple venues in different combinations, these two ghostly vases are connected via tubes to form a system in which water containing an oleander infusion circulates. Small leaks and intermittent functioning in the tube-pump-system give the installation a precarious balance, resembling a labored breathing
