cAn yOu hEAr mE

This work was created during the COVID-19 lockdown, when the pandemic in Italy had already continued through three seasons: spring, summer, and autumn. Cities were closed one after another, while information, assumptions, and rumours surrounding the pandemic were repeatedly overturned, falling away like the leaves of a tree in my garden.

I collected fallen leaves from the garden, scanned them, and transformed them into digital images. The real leaves and their printed reproductions were then arranged in a regular composition on white A4 sheets. Unless viewed closely, it is difficult to distinguish the natural leaves from their copies.

The work also includes a video documenting the tree that provided the material for the project, recording its condition and transformation during that period.

I think of us as leaves on the same tree: growing together and eventually falling together. Some leaves are collected and transformed into art, while others remain in nature and gradually decay. In this work, the real leaves will eventually disappear, while only their reproductions can be preserved. The original and the copy are brought together to form an apparently eternal utopia—one that is, however, built upon disappearance.