Tomaso Clavarino, Patrizio Anastasi, Ballad of Woods and Wounds, 2020

The woods of Monferrato and Roero, the limits imposed by confinement, the exploration of oneself and the natural environment, in a close dialogue between the photographs by Tomaso Clavarino and the illustrations by Patrizio Anastasi, which confront each other, resemble each other, overlap.

Ballad of Woods and Wounds is a stream of consciousness, an investigation of pure places lived in a period of tension and disorientation, during the lockdown in Italy and in a defined period of time which, with little margin for error, runs from 9 March to 19 May 2020. Both artists, forced into social isolation in an environment that is little or not at all anthropized, have had the opportunity to redefine their gazes, limiting interpersonal exchanges and movements. A short and intense journey of discovery, a reflection on society and contemporary living, a trace of a unique, perhaps unrepeatable period. The works of Clavarino and Anastasi intertwine, talk to each other, as if they had been developed together. Clavarino’s photographs are a personal and intimate narration of an inner tension, which speaks of his roots, of the relationship with a place that is important to him and full of memories. Anastasi’s illustrations are a reflection on the exploration of limits, on waiting that allows you to focus on body and mind by creating a bridge, a connection, between the human being and the Nature that surrounds him. Ballad of Woods and Wounds is a sort of country ballad, in which you can breathe the earth, the smell of the forest, and where an almost melancholy quiet is the background for a broader reflection on the very essence of our nature.