The story of the Hedgehog Man

L’ecosofo (The ecosopher)

2014
Sculpture in plexiglas and salt, with led light animation incorporated in the base
cm. 30 x 30 x 38
Private collection

“A burning light. From far away his face is a blurred glare, a man’s head can just be made out. Up close, his entire head is crisscrossed by a thick grid of luminous slivers that turn on and off continuously from various perspectives. Across his partially shaved skull, small details of his brain shine through, innervated with pinkish, throbbing lights, achieved with the use of a laser. This is the reawakening of Mars, in the transfigured male representation of the God of war, evoked by the image of the wounded skull of a little girl, a five-year old orphan, whose eyes “severe, without resting on anyone”, as Anna Politkovskaya describes in one of her articles*, from time to time, open and look around. In the theatrical performance I envisaged for this artwork – the “ecosofo” (ecosopher), a man, who even through his most destructive work, is forced to remove himself from his anthropocentric perspective – I imagined this head in continuous rotation, allowing the shadows to reveal blind glances, to then finally die out..

* Per questo. Alle radici di una morte annunciata. Articoli 1999-2006, Adelphi 2009, p. 34.