“DOWN IN THE WOODS, UP TO THE SKY” CURATED BY DOMENICO DE CHIRICO

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, 1854

 “Down in the woods, up to the sky” does not set itself up as an absolute model of perfection, but tries to get as close as possible to it by moving away from historicism, sloth, cynicism, and the more wicked epicureanism. The artists were invited to freely interpret the above theme with their own personal visions correlated to their artistic practice – each of them breathing a new air while plunging into the woods. Each artist is romantically projected onto a crossroad: with a newfound awareness and existential consciousness; with an ultimate aim of yearning for a more complete cognition of being and consequently of coexistence; with a desire for a deeper connection with the bowels of the world; and with open wings soaring across a clear sky.