καρδια, 2020

[καρδιά, from ancient Greek, means heart.]

"I have love pain"

I have been observing the nautical chart of Capraia for days. My gaze, which follows the gentle coastlines, all of a sudden

enchants on the fragments of the shores and the profile of the island appears to me like the outlines of a torn heart.

I wonder if my fractures coincide with the erosions of the island.

Capraia, February 2020

The island is a heart suspended over the water.

From the sea I infiltrate its arteries.

I walk it along its many paths.

The volcanic dust, the bloody stones I found and the lesions in its edges are perhaps the verification of

what I had imagined. I register my presence on the island with my heart rhythm diagram,

an imaginary tide gauge that matches the sway of the sea and pulsates like the light that flashes from the lighthouse lantern.

In the absence of a signal, I learn to read the wind and listen to the sea, the sweet anesthetic of all my pain.

Thus the ocean, which surrounds the island and my heart, will heal, at least in part, the vermilion abrasions.

As my heart tries to heal, my father's is about to stop.

φιλικῶς

with love.

Capraia is a volcanic island, the only one in the Tuscan archipelago.

The first eruption, about nine million years ago, caused a violent earthquake and half of the island sank into the sea.

καρδια is a work developed during an artist residency on the island of Capraia, Plaza Art Residency

curated by Claudio Composti, mc2gallery.

The body of the work consists of some photographic works, a volcanic stone, a tide gauge built with an electrocardiogram recorded on the island and a video, a diary and two ancient nautical charts of Capraia painted by hand with copper.