The first room focuses on the concept of
mortality.
It includes a life-size bronze sculpture of
Hades , 150 cm
x 140 cm , h175 cm, in the act of
seizing Persefone (symbolized as tatters of
white cloth hanging on the sculpture) and
two triptychs (160 cm x 180 cm) depicting
the nether world and the souls of the dead.
The Theophany of the cosmic principle of
decay, of the hereafter of Shadow and Abyss,
is embodied in the physical power and
implacability of a God whose face is
concealed.
No identity or personal intention can be
openly percieved: the structure of the
statue only reveals strength and action, but
nothing else.
Elements such as chains, hooks and girders
in oxidized iron suggest the presence of a
mechanistic and impersonal element.
In classical myth the opening of a chasm
broke the intact horizontality of a time
which ignored its own caducidity and its
closure marked the beginning of winter, the
withering of nature, awakening in humans the
awareness of the presence of a new polarity:
being and not being, existence and eternity.
This deep chasm breaks the earth of a
bustling road and in falling the traveller
who had made haste, eyes set on the horizon
on his own tomorrow, can no longer stride at
his leisure towards material achievement.
Seemingly precluded from any form of
self-fulfilment, incapable of resurfacing on
his own and fearful of relentlessly slipping
ever deeper into the ground he feels
frustrated, his wishes are thwarted for they
had their roots set in space and time.
Deep terror is fueld by a feeling of
personal disintegration.
Human will is now confronted with an
unyielding superhuman opposition which at
first manifests itself as a constricting and
overbearing intervention both physical and
mechanical marked by the absence of a
personality or purpose of its own.
The first room is focused on this initial
impact: the instant in which something is
shattered, as was Persephone’s
innocence.
Yet even before an attempt is made to
investigate the finality of her ravishment
or the chance of some underlying redeeming
factor or providential role this room brings
you to the brink of an unfathomable and
mysterious abyss and you linger with the
innocence of the ravished nymph or more
plainly of a child who cannot and will not
accept to be abandoned by the object of his
love, by whom he would be loved forever.
An imperceptible yet fully tangible curtain
of incommunicability seems to be drawn
between those who are left outside and those
who have entered this
“other”
dimention, allowing both to experience
mortality either within themselves or in
others.
Memory stretches over the expanse of time
and space to repair, shape and redifine the
contour of things, establishing a new
relationship which is however insufficient
to relieve the tragedy of separation.
The triptychs depict this interpersonal
aspect of mortality.
