The painting carries forward a reflection on the sense of belonging that transcends the place and is instead linked to a more intimate knowledge of oneself and one’s identity as a unique and unrepeatable individual, with his/her history and his/her memories. The indefinite context in which the figure stands out recalls the dimension of dreams and interiority, a journey within ourselves in search of our deepest essence which contains that nucleus that makes us feel at home, among known things, even when the world around us is turned upside down and we no longer recognize it.
The swimmer is a self-portrait and this choice derives from the closeness that I perceive between my experience and the reflections on the concept of feeling/not feeling at home: with an existence divided between different ‘houses’, places located kilometers away from each other, I struggle to answer the simple question ‘Where do you live’ but this does not mean I feel I have lost my origins and my centre: on the contrary, these gradually became stronger and more rooted in me the more I moved away from the place I called home as a child, becoming aware of my identity as a person, my values and my weaknesses. With the dynamism and connection that characterize our time, my experience is – in its small way – the expression of a feeling common to many other people, and it is indicative of a time in which belonging is given more by identity and personal choices than by geographical boundaries.
