Do You understand?

Shenzhen 2012 – 130 x 130 cm

Chinese paper and graphite on wood, glass bottle and linen rope.

“The difficulty in communication caused by the different languages has been itching in my mind since I arrived in China. Despite the language and cultural gaps, I tried to work in a direction that would help me getting closer to this country.

The main piece of work I’m presenting is here also thanks to the cooperation of the artists from the same street of my studio in Shenzhen. I asked them to come to my studio and let them free to look around, see, touch, and feel anything they wanted to. They looked at my work, my space, my pencils, my papers, my tools and colours. Maybe they liked it and understood it or maybe not… Perhaps they felt something, but I didn’t explain it to them, so they could be free to imagine what they wanted and to see what they liked. I observed them, trying to find out what they were thinking.  I asked them to write down whatever they wanted about this experience, in Chinese. I didn’t read their notes, as I wouldn’t understand them, similarly they couldn’t read what is written in my studio. I folded the papers and conserved them inside my work.”