Una farfalla

In the deep states of consciousness, the butterfly has a restless flight. But here, it doesn’t fly; it is open on a plane of dissection. It has veined and transparent wings that overlap.

I drew this butterfly when I arrived in Berlin in 2011. I didn’t yet know what I would do or where I would go. I was disoriented, uprooted from my comfort zone, and at the same time, excited to find myself in that state.

I lived in an almost furniture-free apartment with other tenants. We had only the essentials, and there was no space in that context for my countless tubes of oil paints, my drawers filled with all kinds of brushes, my solid wooden easel, or my large-format boards.

I was left with only a pencil. Lightweight, economical, always at hand: the ultimate nomadic tool. It was there that I entrusted my artistic journey to the tip of a pencil, and it was also there that I began to feel the subtle temptation to transcend pure realism, to dissect and de-section subjects.

This is a butterfly, it may not seem like much more. But for me, it is a symbol of transition and encapsulates the prerequisites of an important transformation, both personal and artistic.