Dad's Diary Home

My father’s diaries have been in my hands since 8 March 1995, the day he died. Without any clear-minded premeditation, little by little, over the years, they have become an integral part of my life, to the point of determining the course of my work in a fluid and natural manner.
I thought about a place where they might be conserved, welcomed and embraced. Almost as if it were a dwelling for my father’s own sentimentality.
In designing this space, I bore two things in mind. The first was the description, in the diary, of a dream my father had in which he talks about a little house, tailor-made for him by my uncle, and which, like a costume, could be carried around. In response to this image of his, I represented a sort of box-suitcase which could be taken anywhere thanks to the handle it had on the top. The suitcase has an inner lining with a fabric-work (1) that protects the diaries, and the outer part is protected by a casing, (2) just as a piece of clothing covers and shelters a naked body.
The second thing I took into consideration was the three structures on which my universe is based: the Sedimentario, the Diarioteca and the Quadro Infinito. These are the three ‘archivers’ that contain all the painting material that is produced in the studio on a daily basis, and which together sum up the entire sense of what I do. I focused in particular on the Quadro Infinito, looking at it as if it were a human figure. From there I started out coming up with a representation of the heart, of the essence of a father, through a container with a vaguely anthropomorphic shape to it. I thus doubled the Quadro Infinito by putting the two individual elements next to each other, almost as if they were two people holding hands with one another.
 
1       The fabric produced by the Bonotto Company of Bassano del Grappa is a leftover from a project that I carried out for the Mario Botta cafeteria at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice.
2       The image printed on a cotton fabric (the same as the one I use for my oil paintings) is a blown-up reproduction of the coring for the diagnostic analysis carried out under a microscope of the Quadro Infinito performed by the CSG Palladio in 2014. In its role as a covering for Una casa per i diari di mio padre, I see it as if it were one form of intimacy that envelops another.

Archivers
Structures built to contain the painted material daily produced. All together, they synthesize the whole meaning of my work.

Core Samples
How do you show the internal and concentrated gesture of stratification? How do you deal with a large space starting from a small gesture? How do you get straight to the heart of the matter? How do you show the most internal part, the central lump, the essence, the deepest point of the time-substance that has been stratified on the “Infinite Painting” over the years? How do you delicately and carefully hold the internal heart of this organism that I call the “Infinite Painting” and bring it out? The urge to examine the “Infinite Painting” arose from these questions.

Tapestry
Opere realizzate in tessuto

Diary
Opere che prendono la forma diaristica

Sculpture
Opere tridimensionali fatte di vari materiali