Walls

Kenya, 1997 – The Joyful Dancing Men were created as a thank-you to Bruno, a friend who generously hosted me for a month in Diani. Each late afternoon, as the air began to cool, he and his friends would gather nearby, engaging in thoughtful conversations while watching me paint. I was often perched on a ladder, working on the arch above the main door. Apparently, watching paint dry had never been so enjoyable.

Roma 2002 - The owner of a newly purchased apartment asked me to decorate one of the kitchen walls. I suggested a few ideas, but he insisted he wanted people.
“What kind of people?” I asked. He gave me complete freedom—any kind of people.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what connected the group of individuals that eventually emerged from the brush, one by one, as if they had been waiting for years to appear on that wall. It was only after finishing the mural that I realized: I’ve been each and every one of them at some point in my life.

Now, let's rewind it to 1997, before Kenya.
Marche 1997 – We had to carry out some structural work on the roof, so the builders put up scaffolding that reached all the way to the top of the house. Once the roof was repaired, my father told me the workers had left the scaffolding in place and that I was welcome, after finishing my summer exams, to come back from Bologna (where I was studying at university) and use it to decorate the blind window that had always looked so sad with its plain, grey cement face.
So, I spent the following week perched on the scaffolding. What a view from up there!