NOT A SECRET DIARY

a virtual residence during the pandemic lockdown (08.04-21.04.2020)

A human’s life is social: we all have the biological and psychological need to be among other human beings and to share. Ignoring the natural instinct of sharing could be dangerous, but if fulfilled, it can lead to strong creative actions. During this period of insecurities, all of us have hung invisible question marks on the walls of our homes; homes where we are closed, where we continue to live, to resist, to search. These homes are scattered in different corners of the planet; through them we create a luminous net among us and suddenly we cancel the concept of borders. 

Right now we are all inside the same big house, inside a closed museum or inside that house by the sea that we all dreamed about as the last chance for salvation during the end of the world. In the same time, most of us also find themselves in front of the screen of a smartphone or a computer, with internet access. We could talk with each other in order to not forget what we are feeling and thinking now. Reflecting and documenting. Not forgetting. History has taught us many times not to do so. Art has always been an absolute process of sharing, starting from the artist him/herself. Since the creation of the art system, we’ve been risking to forget this aspect of it and to lose the importance of art as a crucial part of our existence.

This virtual residence doesn’t want to function as a critic, but still wants to distance itself from certain categorizations of the art system which we find suffocating for the artist and also other components of the art scene in general. We’d like to propose a convivium, or (just to make a historical reference because it is important not to forget) a Salon. Through the meeting possibilities powered by technology, we will be able to see each other, to discuss and most of all to create together. We will try to leave a trace, but also to create a flow that resembles the fresh memory of a child. Our virtual meeting space will be updated day by day, so we can keep on feeding each other, while still being inside of our homes. Nonetheless, this space remains open to the public so it can serve as source of inspiration and research and we do not exclude that this project might take a diverse form through time; in fact this will be also part of our common creative process – this is also what we believe that stands at the core of the power of creation: transformation.

ADI

Everything starts from a vibration, an intuitive but aware process.
Adi Demi, “Vibrations”, 2020, video

GIULIA

In this process, I feel my original vibration. I am not one but multiple. I connect and I reflect.
Giulia Dongilli, “Ekstasis”, 2020, video

CHIARA

I reflect that there are places in which we expand and coexist and interlace and fill the air and I, in those moments of fusion, I almost forget to be one.
Chiara De Maria, “Ci sono posti”, 2020 , digital photography

ENI

But still, what kind of presence of the self do I look for? The absence of what I think I am, in order to go through what I really am.
Eni Derhemi, “SoulShape”, 2020, visual poetry on digital photography

ELVIS

In such attempt, I engage in a highly formalized language, a language which I wish to enrich by injecting it with personal, sometimes poetic experiences.
Elvis Hoxhaj, “Writing Exercises”, 2020, writing

ADI & LARA

It is a conscious observation and an experience of a transformation process of the ordinary into the poetical.
Adi Demi and Lara Tonon, “No·vi·lu·ni·um Conversations”, 2020, written conversation and video

CHIARA & KIARA

If we never met, something did melt, already.
Chiara De Maria and Kiara Asllani, “Come”, 2020, video of photograph & music

GIULIA & ELISA

While being distant and in isolation, we enter into a dialogue with each other through our eyes, even if virtually.
Elisa Crostella and Giulia Dongilli, “Orizzonti”, 2020, video

ELVIS & ENI

But is it possible for the internet to be the utopia of complete immaterial encounters? Can we meet in the middle?
Eni Derhemi and Elvis Hoxhaj, “The Melting Poem by E.E Mastlorin”, 2020, video & poetry

INA & MARTINA

We explore the feeling of suffocation and search for an impossible love. It is an attempt to know each other’s sensitivity in the darkness of the digital by taking it into the natural.
Ina Lisi and Martina Ranedda, “I give you the words”, 2020, poem, video & illustration

SARA & MICHELA

 I spent an hour talking to an Artificial Intelligence, starting with “I miss you”.
Breathing, drinking, loving, crying, making love, teaching, counting, being born, dying, remembering.
Michela Curti and Sara Bugoloni, “I miss you AI”, 2020, screenshots & “Ricordi”, 2020, digital photography and video

LARA

Suddenly, a Sybil appears. From the abyss of the Earth to the obscurity of the blood, the destiny of a Sybil is making visible what is not yet manifested.
Lara Tonon, “Sibylla Familiars”, 2020, performance and poem

ELISA

When approaching the invisible as visible, my inner private and intimate space is connected though the screen with other private spaces, with other individuals and with their reflections.
Elisa Crostella, “Raft”, 2020, digital photography

MARTINA

I reflect; what does it mean taking care of something? Are we able to take care of a friend, of a lover, of a child, of a flower or even of the place where we are living?
Martina Ranedda, “Quarantine’s Tamagotchi”, 2020, illustration

MICHELA

We’re all constantly exposed. While we couldn’t touch and see each other for long, I felt Images were acting like skin. So to me the question was: How much can I tolerate my skin to burn?
Michela Curti, “Exposure”, 2020, writing on digital photography

SARA

My state of mind morphs with the sun: serene in the morning when I turn East but while the sun is on the roof, I become idle. I look at the trees outside of my window: nature kept up her pace. I am safe inside but I constantly look outside.
Sara Bugoloni, “Symbiosis”, 2020, video

INA

The outside belongs to time. I’ve always been interested in images that transmit a sense of timelessness. The so-called past, present, and future are happening simultaneously.
Ina Lisi, “appar(t)eniamo”, 2020, video

KIARA

When happening, I am there to look, ready and wondering. It feels like, the arrival of the first rain of June, seen from an apartment window.
Kiara Asllani, “Opening to a summer night”, 2020, video