A page from the artist’s working diary for the project “My Heart is a Void, the Void is a Mirror – Odessa Episode”. The land art project is currently suspended as a consequence of the pandemic.
Odessa, 26.10.19
I already spoke about the end of the world. Eight years ago. It is a feeling that permeates me.
To see the end of the world
seems to be the destiny of my generation.
It is like we carry this destiny, a feeling inside us, numbed and drunk on storefront lights.
Maybe the essence of consumerism is ‘distraction’- to distract us from this extinction that is written into our blood.
In this far away place, on the salted lake, the screams of birds seem to me the only voice still possible.
The sound of steps approaching from behind me moves me.
If i look at the cars and the trucks that flow on the street at the horizon, as if pulled along by strings,
I feel like over there, they don’t yet know something that here I know.
Or, maybe, they are electric stars and know everything already.
Gian Maria Tosatti (Roma, 1980) is an Italian visual artist. His projects usually are long-term investigations on specific topics related to the concept of identity, from the political to the spiritual standpoint. His work consists mainly of large-scale site-specific installations conceived for entire buildings or urban areas. His practice involves often the communities of the places where he works. In 2015 the international magazine ArtReview put him on the list of the 30 most interesting artists of his generation (Future Greats). Tosatti is also a journalist and a writer. He’s a columnist for Corriere della Sera and the magazine Opera Viva. He writes essays about art and politics. His work has been shown at the Hessel Museum del CCS BARD (New York – 2014), the MADRE museum, (Napoli – 2016), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (New York – 2011), the Galleria Nazionale (Roma – 2017), the Petah Tikva Museum of Art (Petah Tikva – 2017), the Museo Archeologico di Salerno (Salerno – 2014) American Academy in Rome (Roma – 2013), Museo Villa Croce (Genova – 2012), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Roma – 2008), Chelsea Art Museum (New York – 2009), BJCEM (2014).