Il dilemma del porcospino
2020
In Arthur Schopenhauer's "The Hedgehog's Dilemma" ("Il dilemma del porcospino") the philosopher describes a situation in which two porcupines, driven by the need to protect themselves from the cold, approach each other to exchange heat. In this movement, however, they are seized by the pain that they cause each other by pricking with their own quills. This pain leads them to move away again and the situation is resolved only when the two manage to find the right distance.
When I learned about this metaphor, I was immediately struck by it as it perfectly expresses one of the crucial points that characterize the enigmatic experience of being human, or rather, of the central struggle of finding the right distance to coexist with each other as humans.
With the pandemic outbreak and the start of my therapeutic journey which brought to the surface lots of memories from my childhood and conflicts with my family, I confronted them for the first time as an artist and understood I was crossing an intersection to get to adulthood.
I know this work can be contextualized in the historical moment in which it was created. However, there’s a more personal reason for why this project was born and in the end, it’s a story about my life.
I kept repeating familiar patterns that felt rooted in a past I didn’t quite know yet. For this very reason, the narration is punctuated by vernacular pictures from my family archive that depict my grandparents in Sicily when my parents were younger, intertwining their life and the past with mine and the present until I made peace with feelings of estrangement and belonging.
