2007 Galleria Il Segno, Rome
Materials: Earth, grass, flowers, fabric, ceramics, perfume essence, video and audio created specifically for the event
Dimensions:
I° room: m 4,5 x 6
II° room: m 4,5 x 5
outside courtyard: m 6,3 x 6
The voyage as a search: of the universe and of ourselves: impelled by curiosity and in route towards the infinite.
Passionate explorer of spaces, Maria Dompè relives the magic of discovery in this work dedicated to Ella Maillart. Versatile talent – journalist, photographer, athlete – Maillart (1903-1997) has crossed the Far East, from the Caucasus to China. Her experience revives in the environment of the gallery, Il Segno: a place of the spirit, marked by perceptive stimuli that synchronize the public to the frequency of the work. The path is shown by a video installed in the first room, where the thoughts of the voyager are continually displayed: “With its enchanting beauty and wonders, the world attracts us even before we manage to intuit the existence of a hidden meaning. So we begin to study it, to conquer it little by little, wondering how it will respond to our most intimate desires. The world, however, even in its countless forms, is not able to give us the fundamental answer: only God can do that. And God cannot be found in any place except inside of ourselves”. (Ella Maillart, Cruises and Caravans, J.M. Dent and Sons, London, 1942, Italian edition, EDT, Torino 2005).
Beyond a curtain, there is a revelation: clumps of earth and green lawns appear, on with fabric, pillows, and objects have been laid. Flowers and fragrant essences capture the senses, stimulating an immediate relationship with the work. Malliart’s habitat coincides with nature, with the contemplative dimension that inspires meditation. Mirror of the divine, where it is easier to grasp the signs. From the intimate sphere, cognitive energy bursts out to the exterior, into the gallery’s courtyard. The secret garden, cultivated in silence, spreads out into the space. It is the baggage that accompanies the voyager in her adventurers, aware that the destination is inside you. “I don’t believe this because someone told me. It’s the truth that I discovered along my journey, the most important lesson that I gleaned from everything I have seen and experienced, from the total of all my experiences. Today I feel at home wherever I am and, even though I live alone, I can never more suffer from solitude”. (Ella Maillart, op. cit.)
Maria Egizia Fiaschetti