TRA IL DIRE E IL FARE

Tra il dire e il fare.
 Video installation – mixed media
, Palazzo Fondi, Circular Room, Naples
2023 Tra il dire e il fare (Between Saying and Doing) is a site-specific video installation designed for the evocative Circular Room of Palazzo Fondi in Naples. The work consists of two large monitors placed opposite each other in a mirrored configuration, with a 450-liter water-filled aquarium set between them. This central element is not just a scenic object, but a true optical and symbolic device: the water, transparent yet dense, becomes an interlayer that refracts, blends, and multiplies the projected images, creating an almost holographic visual effect. The two projections engage in tension:
– On one side, the solemn view of a ship's wake in motion, evoking the profound sense of journey, freedom, and openness to the elsewhere;
– On the other, glimpses of everyday life inside a domestic aquarium, images that suggest a condition of captivity, repetition, and constraint. The work thus constructs a poetic and conceptual contrast between the desire to leave and the reality of staying, between the illusion of movement and the truth of immobility. At the center, the aquarium serves as an ambiguous metaphor: a place of beauty and contemplation, but also of transparent imprisonment. Tra il dire e il fare invites reflection on the concept of "restanza", drawing on the thought of philosopher and anthropologist Vito Teti, who describes restanza as “the attitude of those who, despite difficulties and driven by desire, remain in their place of origin with purposeful intentions and initiatives for renewal.” A conscious act of choice, where resistance and resilience intertwine with tenacity and adaptation. In this sense, the work does not simply contrast movement and stillness but explores that intermediate zone – between saying and doing, between desire and limit – where a new way of inhabiting our time and space takes shape.