Ore perplesse, brividi

d’una vita che fugge

come acqua tra le dita;

inafferrati eventi,

luci-ombre, commovimenti

delle cose malferme della terra..

(Montale, L'agave sullo scoglio)

 

“ORE PERPLESSE” is an expression borrowed from Montale’s L’agave sullo scoglio, chosen as the title of a self-portrait project: a series of images that speak of precariousness and the absence of certainty, yet affirm the beauty of being alive.

The slightly blurred and unsteady effect—“unsteady on the earth”—and the graphic patterns of crumpled paper intersect with the stillness of the subject, who seems to resist the days flowing by too quickly.

The fragility of existence, suggested by the crumpling sheet of paper, almost becomes an embroidery or a veil to be worn. Light filtered through curtains and fabrics softens the atmosphere, which remains luminous and fundamentally positive, while removing every spatial and temporal reference, every detail that might define an identity, a meaning, a direction.

What remains is waiting, uncertainty, and wonder.

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