I & I : Ice & Ikebanas

Statement in few words: photographs of iced and thawing drought -resistant wild flowers Ikebana, as a metaphor of world warming and disappearing glaciers. On July 3, 2022, a piece of the Marmolada glacier in the Italian Alps broke away, overwhelming many people thirsty for its beauty. Almost a month before that announced tragedy, faced with the worst drought of my era, in the Umbrian-Tuscan countryside, foreseeing what would happen, I conceived the project of photographing the poignant beauty of wildflowers, which I collect, arrange and photograph after freezing them. As in the ancient Japanese tradition of Ikebana, I follow my aesthetic instinct and the "genius loci". For me the project, in addition to seeking and celebrating the poetry of wild flowers, has many meanings: wildflowers are a symbol of the Sapiens' resilience to climate change. The project also wants to think about the paradox of the Nature and of Sapiens who continuously create and destroy. And last but not least, the acronym of the English title “I & I” reminds me of the self-destructive self-centeredness of the Sapiens, as in the parable of the frog and the scorpion.