There is an emptiness inside, which no one can fill. No matter how much love they give you, it never seems to be enough. You are afraid of being alone, even when you are not. You see goodbyes everywhere.

You think you’re not enough, you hope you’ll be enough but that something in you that you think is wrong, that you think is there, blocks you and this wound keeps bleeding, do you know why? I’ll tell you, you keep looking outside yourself for what you need to heal inside.

Reggio Emilia, 05.11.2024

Eyes in the Eyes: The Encounter with the Self

‘Eyes in the Eyes’ is a work that interrogates the gaze and the sense of identity. The mirroring game involving the observer forces him into an experience of self-contemplation: looking at himself reflected, he is not only confronted with his own image, but with the depth of his inner texture. The tapestry, traditionally meant to be seen from the outside, is revealed in its hidden side, suggesting that the true essence of ourselves is not what we show to the world, but what exists beyond the surface.

The work thus becomes a philosophical device that questions the concept of inner emptiness: the reflection in the 19th-century mirror, a symbol of memory and temporality, refers to the eternal search for the self. The fear of not being enough, the sense of lack that one tries to fill with the Other, dissolve in the intuition that true healing is an internal process. The observer is called upon to shift the search from the outside to the inside, accepting that the mirror does not lie, but only returns what we are willing to see.

The choice of materials – antique mirror, copper, tapestry – evokes an interweaving between intimacy and history, between immediate perception and the deep fabric of our experiences. The reflection is thus not just an image, but a place of truth: Eyes in the eyes confronts us with the need to recognise ourselves, accept our wounds and stop looking outside for what needs to be rediscovered inside.

C. Mottola

Critico d’arte presso MACM

www.macm.com