Il sogno

I started this drawing back in 2014. I had completed the entire face, and the result was truly promising. Then, at some point, I got stuck.

This drawing followed me through three different moves. It landed on various drawing tables, yet was never finished.

When I received the keys to my new studio in Neukölln this May, I brought it with me and made a firm decision: I would finish it, no matter what. I had an upcoming exhibition at Kunstquartier Bethanien, and I was determined to complete the piece and include it in the show.

The process of finishing it was slow. Returning to an old drawing is exhausting. The more I worked on it, the more it felt like I would never actually finish.

Just a few days before the vernissage, I realized that even if, to me, the drawing still felt unfinished, to others it might appear complete. So I decided to exhibit it without a frame, leaving the possibility open to bring it back to the drawing table later.

Now I wonder how much longer I would have worked on it, had collectors Fouad and Katharina Banit not immediately purchased it upon seeing it.

From a technical perspective, this drawing is built upon a visual dialogue between two expressive languages: on one side, a pencil and charcoal portrait rendered in a style that borders on hyperrealism, meticulously shaped through precise, controlled micro-hatching; on the other, a world of doodles drawn with markers—free, instinctive, and seemingly chaotic.

The composition contrasts the formal precision of black and white with the spontaneity of graphic marks, creating a balance between order and creative impulse.

At the center, a young woman floats on the water’s surface, letting her hair drift freely as she symbolically sinks into a subconscious realm, where symbols, images, and childhood memories emerge and swirl around her in spiral patterns.

Among these fragments of memory, a secret comes to light.