"Memory is not possible, in fact, without an image (phantasma), which is an affection, a pathos of thought. Always charged with an energy capable of moving and disturbing the body"

Giorgio Agamben

The project Dancing Ghosts arises from the problem of the conservation of my latest sculptural series Hug Me Barefoot (2022), composed of raw clay low-reliefs that reveal perhaps more unnoticed and subtle scenes of a party, which refer to affective relationships and the collective, but also to more intimate moments such as introspection or solitude. A
After the series of drawings (I Would Have Been Burnt at The Stake, 2021 and Idol Eyes or The Dogs With Panties, 2021) I realised that what matters most to me about the party is the event itself, the fact of being there together, understood here as a differential space-time where nothing is intended to change (in the sense of counter-cultural movement) and which somehow allows access to the present, a rhythmic platform for exchange and connectedness, but also to the accident and therefore to a kind of freedom, albeit only momentary.
For this reason, with the transition from drawing to low-relief, I wanted to exalt the physicality of the experience and the fragility of the bodily exchange. But since it is something so ephemeral, which disappears at the same time as it is produced, it leads me to reflect on memory and time. Unlike the series of drawings, I decided to use my own photographs as a reference with the intention of underlining the autobiographical sense of the work, but as there is a certain impossibility of retaining the whole story, when one is no longer there, all that remains are just fragmented images in the memory. That is why Hug Me Barefoot (2022-23) consisted on a series of objects that over time, break and disintegrate and therefore become physically fragile. The images are thus alive as they continue to transform out of my hands, but also, being charged with time and memory, they are always threatened to disappear or assume a phantasmal form.
The project Dancing Ghosts (2022) is then about how to deal, both physically and metaphorically, with the permanence of these images, these fragments of the past. To do this, as an art conservator, I decided to collect and catalogue the pieces of clay that had fallen from the relief to fire them, so that they would petrify and thus become perennial.
The ceramic pieces will be displayed as in an archaeological museum. The use of the vitrine refers to the usual way of displaying preserved objects. As history is always a narrative that is constructed from the present, these objects are then that which makes such a narrative possible.
Therefore, Dancing Ghosts is a project that speaks about history and the passing of time. The fragment already refers in itself to something past, but in addition, by conserving it, it helps not only to understand the present, but also projects itself into the future, since by displaying it in a vitrine it acquires the sense of a legacy: to conserve and care for these fragments is, consequently, to turn them into an object for the reconstruction and transmission of history, even if in this case it is only a very small part of it (mine).
Finally, about the title Dancing Ghosts. I was interested in the concept of ghost, but not so much as something between life and death, but because it refers to that which resists being forgotten: a ghost is an image of something that remains imprinted in the fantasy, in the memory. Domenico de Piacenza, a famous 15th century choreographer describes that one of the fundamental elements of the art of dance happens in the dancer between the movement and the break, a pause charged with kinetic energy, as if in that moment in which the dancer stops for a second, is able to embody all the movement of the rest of the choreography, and what Domenico refers to as: il danzare per fantasmata. In other words, fantasmata is the condition of memorability of the dance itself. That said, my pieces of ceramic fragments are what refuses to disappear, and although they are static objects, frozen like Domenico's dancer, they are still charged with time and memory.