dispersal

"It's a misty day and we've already been walking for a couple of hours. It's been raining for weeks now, the forest has an apocalyptic feel to it, trees have fallen and the air is still, yet full of muffled sounds. [..] Weather for wolves, we use to say in Italy, and we are so mistaken. Wolves don't like the rain[..] My friend and guide keeps checking the GPS signal, to lead me where the wolf's collar sent the same signal one year ago. We are seeing what the wolf has seen, I keep thinking. Maybe.

Something white among the leaves: a long, thick bone. Clean, totally clean. Wolves use to sleep by their hunted preys until there's nothing left, I've read. I gleam with joy: we're on the right path.

"Aren't you scared? A predator is close to us, in this very moment, maybe." asks my friend.

No, I'm not. Wolves are almost impossible to meet, people say, but they are most likely watching you while you least expect it. It's their nature. It's how they live. Being just allowed in their realm, and being able to see and tell what they see, it's already a big honour.[..]"

 

Dispersal began as a project about wolves and still is, but it is more a project about the longing for them and for what they can represent. Wolves, a species which is still in danger, are still a powerful symbol fo mystery, freedom, and nature's independence from the will of mankind.

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I used the data about Sic, an italian wolf in dispersal ("dispersal cases" are the ones who leave the pack and wonder by themselves, in search of a new place to settle and a new partner, sometimes: I can't help to feel a dispersal case myself.) to trace a track to follow, and wanted to meet all the people who met him. I wanted to see what the wolf had seen.

 

The complete work is an "artist's book" published together with the indipendent publishing house Rumore Nero : in fact, the work itself can be read as an police investigation and I was inspired by the "cold case" boxes to produce one of my one, containing not only pictures that can be used to reconstruct the search but also objects and documents (see the attached picture)

 

(After 8 months of GPS tracking Sic disappeared, and his collar was found unlatched in the italian woods. Sic remains a mystery and a symbol.)