DanieleFormica

Daniele Formica

A Dame Reflecting (leaning on bed), 2021 This image is drawn from a photograph I took in 2019. As one gets closer the lines that draw him start to be taken apart from each other and he disappears. As distance is taken our gaze composes him again. This walking closer and further reminded me of swimming in a pool.

Untitled (Alba Verde Bianco Rosso), 2019 I made this work after the vision of a green/white/red chequered room bending into a tunnel. Getting closer to the corner of the room seemed as if the pattern was infinitely replicating the two meeting walls and the floor -the X, Y, Z, coordinates, as if space and time were getting loose from one another. I had to think about the unfolding of tents, the space created by the bending of surfaces and lines, and patterns being both guidance and labyrinth to the sense of vision.

The beast ascends as the spirit of fear, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

I look at the wolf, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

U big black wolf, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

The beast ascends as the spirit of fear, 4 pillars, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

The clutches of time, 2020 The Clutches of Time is an ongoing series combining performance and drawing. In certain nights where I feel particularly inclined to do so, when there is absence of natural light and I have control over artificial light, I stage self-portraiture. Self-portraiture is indeed a stage and a ritual, where one focuses with their reflection in the mirror. In this case, the darkness outside makes it so that my windows, transparent glass in daylight, become mirrors in the night. To think that the night is nothing more than the shadow of this planet, and to think that light is the fastest speed known to today, makes the ritual of self-portraiture a dance of image as light and life as time.

Wolf Mask, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

Facing the light, (Giallo di Napoli), 2021 After reading about the origins of the popular pigment Giallo di Napoli, I started fantasizing about an ancient citizen walking alone at night around Pompei and being struck by the blinding light emanated from the Vesuvius eruption. This unfortunate bystander, while facing the sublime spectacle, must have instinctively brought their hands to the face, a natural gesture of self-defence and as well as censoring, with the metaphysical presupposition that not watching can count as avoiding being present in the apocalyptic eruption.

Boys by the pool at Ellen de Bruijne Projects, 2021 (Photo by Jeroen Desmalen) To swim in a pool of material belongings, plunging, drifting, whirling. The water is glistening, and so are the boys, staying afloat in the quiet streams of aquatic nostalgia. Fidgety silhouettes merge into one another, blurring the limits of their bodies. The water is inviting yet challenging, for its fluid state of being is not apt for humans to live in. Partly vulnerable, partly sensual, Formica’s boys exist in a voyeuristic vacuum where their beautiful bodies swing between subject and object by our gaze, and they coexist with repurposed memorabilia and blue introspections. In Boys by the Pool, Daniele Formica invites us to dip into his watery realm and navigate its liquidity.

Boys by the pool, 2021 In the series “Boys by the pool” I depict young male figures in water. Being in water is literally being in a different state of matter, the fluid one -a physical state that humans cannot live in, yet that often resembles what is happening in the mind, in the socius surrounding our consciousness. Being in water is then partly being vulnerable, partly sensual. Being afraid of leaving the surface, where air is, to check if we can reach and touch the bottom.

GRACE, 2020 I was taking a very long shower and having a lot of thoughts in my mind. The moment I came out and was about to slide my foot in the flip flop, I noticed how it funnily changed the meaning of the word embroiled in the carpet: I was reading Grace. This simple message experienced in intimacy lifted my spirit and caught a laugh from me. From then on I try to not touch it at all and just preserve it as an artwork.

NAU, 2020 "[...]e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare". (And drifting is to me sweet in this sea) from Giacomo Leopardi, L’infinito. I was very amused to stretch a relation between the etymology of the verb naufragare (nau/frago) and the phonemic transcription of English noun "Now" (nau). Drifting and present, or literally ship (nav) and present, are now together. The Neptune balls were collected by my family in August across the Mediterranean coast, then shipped to the Netherlands. I threaded them with one single blue thread.

Harvest Bag #3, 2021 The harvest bags are a series of sculptures consisting of purses from my ex partners and old friends filled with my belongings or collections of different nature and branches, shrubs or other vegetative elements. They are the meeting point of cornucopias, glamour vessels, still-lives, cabinets of curiosities and storages of meaningful memories.

Truth or Dare, 2021 An autobiographical image from my past with a stolen image from an archaeological find.

List of actions that deal with states of matter, 2020 I started to look at my belongings as if they were some parts of water closer to me in a swimming pool. When I would move my arm, the water closer to me would be affected much more than the water further away. In the same way these objects were being affected by the movements of my life. I was swimming in a pool of objects. I started to think about life in different states of matter and what this can mean.

Transformed Gift (AMICI), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. When I had to move house and pack/unpack everything, I read this shirt's etiquette for the first time and the word "AMICI" caught my attention.

Laurel Branch (Running Together from cave to cave), 2020 I was very amused by the discovered practice of cutting letters out of leaves so that branches from the poetry tree could speak.

Transformed Gift (Rainbow cape), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. I received this rainbow cape as a present for my 24th birthday; I was told it is meant to be worn at night during parties or other celebrations as it comes with a button that lights it up with rainbow colours.

Transformed Gift (Faggy?), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. I received this butcher apron in 2017, the spray-painted question "Faggy?" was part of the gift.

Liquid Poetry, 2020 Liquid Poetry is a series of works that occurred in March and April 2020 at the breakout of the world pandemic. It is threaded around the event of different humans assuming "Liquid Poetry#1" -a laurel based spirit made by Daniele Formica. Laurel was consumed in the temple of Apollo in Delphi by the Pythias in order to consult Apollo's oracle. Delphi is the centre of the ancient world, marked by the placement of the Omphalos.

The Father, 2021 Obtaining this candelabra in winter 2020 was the beginning of this sculptural process. I left the old, broken candelabra laying in my studio for weeks until this sentence about the father, came to mind: (he)who wishes to live the life of his son. I immediately decided to use the candelabra as a vessel for this sentence.

Moving out vibes, 2021 I took this image when moving out of my home in February 2021. This painting, a copy of Caravaggio's Medusa, had been in my living-room for 4 years. Taking it off the wall and laying it on the moving boxes created such a dramatic situation that needed to be immortalized.

Cape Hangers from A Comedy for 3 Dantes, 2020 It is often said that the dress does not make the monk, yet poetic license confutes this statement, especially when poetry is about covering and discovering. In this specific case 2 performers and myself make use of 3 red capes and comedy noses to transform into Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante wrote the divine comedy, that marks the blossoming of Humanistic thought (post Middleage theocentric thought). Dante’s comedy is the literary step in-between god and humans: he speaks of god’s laws and theological structures, but his gaze lies upon the sins and blessings of his own contemporaries: real people in Dante’s world. The performance similarly invites other humans to wear the red capes and become one of 3 Dantes. It is basically a ritual to become a Dante for 20 minutes.

A Comedy for 3 Dantes, 2020 It is often said that the dress does not make the monk, yet poetic license confutes this statement, especially when poetry is about covering and discovering. In this specific case 2 performers and myself make use of 3 red capes and comedy noses to transform into Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante wrote the divine comedy, that marks the blossoming of Humanistic thought (post Middleage theocentric thought). Dante’s comedy is the literary step in-between god and humans: he speaks of god’s laws and theological structures, but his gaze lies upon the sins and blessings of his own contemporaries: real people in Dante’s world. The performance similarly invites other humans to wear the red capes and become one of 3 Dantes. It is basically a ritual to become a Dante for 20 minutes.

The death of the death of the death of BILL, 2019 In the world there is an enormous amount of particles dispersed from my body forming an entity of kilos of dead skin, pieces of nails stuck in office carpets and dried sweat stains travelling on train seats. I gave this entity the name of BILL and analyzed its metaphysical composition with my drawings. All started after wearing the 222Banda Anniston Slim from Kappa my father gave me for Christmas 2018.The performance consists in exposing through oral form, with the help of the drawings, the theory of Bill, his entity, the particles, dispersion, identity and his 3 deaths.

The death of the death of the death of BILL, 2019 In the world there is an enormous amount of particles dispersed from my body forming an entity of kilos of dead skin, pieces of nails stuck in office carpets and dried sweat stains travelling on train seats. I gave this entity the name of BILL and analyzed its metaphysical composition with my drawings. All started after wearing the 222Banda Anniston Slim from Kappa my father gave me for Christmas 2018.The performance consists in exposing through oral form, with the help of the drawings, the theory of Bill, his entity, the particles, dispersion, identity and his 3 deaths.

Cornstarch body on rock (Big), 2020 The corn-starch bodies are inspired by the 28 chant of the Divine Comedy where Ulysses and crewmates cross Hercules’ “Ne plus ultra”, the limit of the ancient world, and are punished by divine power. More specifically a vortex opens in the sea waters and the ship start falling vertically. This moment, known as “il folle volo di Ulisse” (Ulysses deranged flight), symbolizes for the first time Ulysses changing travelling plane: from horizontal (across Mediterranean) to vertical (towards hell). The slowly decomposing corn-starch bodies, afflicted by gravity and filled almost until exploding of their organic content, are small portraits of Ulysses and crew’s aftermath from the fall.

A chair walks into a house, 2019 The performance guides the audience through the exploration, discovery, conquest, instauration of a totalitarian regime and falling of that regime in a private domestic space through the eyes of an inanimate protagonist: the fold out seminar IKEA Gunde chair.

2001:Hamlin, 2018 After looking into mice life in my studio at night, I began fantasizing upon a post-apocalyptic society of scavengers acting beneath the domain of order (or under the table, as some might say). A rather monumental and silent installation reflects on orderly views of a missed future.

Technology of writing: SPLENDOR, 2018 A blackboard is wiped with a wet mop and photographed with a Polaroid camera while its drying. Once completely dry, the word 'splendor' is written on the blackboard in capital letters with a chalk, then the process is repeated cyclically. The Polaroids are presented on the blackboard throughout the process, and the time lapse between fully wet and snapshot is reported on them.

Technology of writing: SPLENDOR, 2018 A blackboard is wiped with a wet mop and photographed with a Polaroid camera while its drying. Once completely dry, the word 'splendor' is written on the blackboard in capital letters with a chalk, then the process is repeated cyclically. The Polaroids are presented on the blackboard throughout the process, and the time lapse between fully wet and snapshot is reported on them.

(Artist Statement)

A Dame Reflecting (leaning on bed), 2021 This image is drawn from a photograph I took in 2019. As one gets closer the lines that draw him start to be taken apart from each other and he disappears. As distance is taken our gaze composes him again. This walking closer and further reminded me of swimming in a pool.

Untitled (Alba Verde Bianco Rosso), 2019 I made this work after the vision of a green/white/red chequered room bending into a tunnel. Getting closer to the corner of the room seemed as if the pattern was infinitely replicating the two meeting walls and the floor -the X, Y, Z, coordinates, as if space and time were getting loose from one another. I had to think about the unfolding of tents, the space created by the bending of surfaces and lines, and patterns being both guidance and labyrinth to the sense of vision.

The beast ascends as the spirit of fear, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

I look at the wolf, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

U big black wolf, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

The beast ascends as the spirit of fear, 4 pillars, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

The clutches of time, 2020 The Clutches of Time is an ongoing series combining performance and drawing. In certain nights where I feel particularly inclined to do so, when there is absence of natural light and I have control over artificial light, I stage self-portraiture. Self-portraiture is indeed a stage and a ritual, where one focuses with their reflection in the mirror. In this case, the darkness outside makes it so that my windows, transparent glass in daylight, become mirrors in the night. To think that the night is nothing more than the shadow of this planet, and to think that light is the fastest speed known to today, makes the ritual of self-portraiture a dance of image as light and life as time.

Wolf Mask, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

Facing the light, (Giallo di Napoli), 2021 After reading about the origins of the popular pigment Giallo di Napoli, I started fantasizing about an ancient citizen walking alone at night around Pompei and being struck by the blinding light emanated from the Vesuvius eruption. This unfortunate bystander, while facing the sublime spectacle, must have instinctively brought their hands to the face, a natural gesture of self-defence and as well as censoring, with the metaphysical presupposition that not watching can count as avoiding being present in the apocalyptic eruption.

Boys by the pool at Ellen de Bruijne Projects, 2021 (Photo by Jeroen Desmalen) To swim in a pool of material belongings, plunging, drifting, whirling. The water is glistening, and so are the boys, staying afloat in the quiet streams of aquatic nostalgia. Fidgety silhouettes merge into one another, blurring the limits of their bodies. The water is inviting yet challenging, for its fluid state of being is not apt for humans to live in. Partly vulnerable, partly sensual, Formica’s boys exist in a voyeuristic vacuum where their beautiful bodies swing between subject and object by our gaze, and they coexist with repurposed memorabilia and blue introspections. In Boys by the Pool, Daniele Formica invites us to dip into his watery realm and navigate its liquidity.

Boys by the pool, 2021 In the series “Boys by the pool” I depict young male figures in water. Being in water is literally being in a different state of matter, the fluid one -a physical state that humans cannot live in, yet that often resembles what is happening in the mind, in the socius surrounding our consciousness. Being in water is then partly being vulnerable, partly sensual. Being afraid of leaving the surface, where air is, to check if we can reach and touch the bottom.

GRACE, 2020 I was taking a very long shower and having a lot of thoughts in my mind. The moment I came out and was about to slide my foot in the flip flop, I noticed how it funnily changed the meaning of the word embroiled in the carpet: I was reading Grace. This simple message experienced in intimacy lifted my spirit and caught a laugh from me. From then on I try to not touch it at all and just preserve it as an artwork.

NAU, 2020 "[...]e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare". (And drifting is to me sweet in this sea) from Giacomo Leopardi, L’infinito. I was very amused to stretch a relation between the etymology of the verb naufragare (nau/frago) and the phonemic transcription of English noun "Now" (nau). Drifting and present, or literally ship (nav) and present, are now together. The Neptune balls were collected by my family in August across the Mediterranean coast, then shipped to the Netherlands. I threaded them with one single blue thread.

Harvest Bag #3, 2021 The harvest bags are a series of sculptures consisting of purses from my ex partners and old friends filled with my belongings or collections of different nature and branches, shrubs or other vegetative elements. They are the meeting point of cornucopias, glamour vessels, still-lives, cabinets of curiosities and storages of meaningful memories.

Truth or Dare, 2021 An autobiographical image from my past with a stolen image from an archaeological find.

List of actions that deal with states of matter, 2020 I started to look at my belongings as if they were some parts of water closer to me in a swimming pool. When I would move my arm, the water closer to me would be affected much more than the water further away. In the same way these objects were being affected by the movements of my life. I was swimming in a pool of objects. I started to think about life in different states of matter and what this can mean.

Transformed Gift (AMICI), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. When I had to move house and pack/unpack everything, I read this shirt's etiquette for the first time and the word "AMICI" caught my attention.

Laurel Branch (Running Together from cave to cave), 2020 I was very amused by the discovered practice of cutting letters out of leaves so that branches from the poetry tree could speak.

Transformed Gift (Rainbow cape), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. I received this rainbow cape as a present for my 24th birthday; I was told it is meant to be worn at night during parties or other celebrations as it comes with a button that lights it up with rainbow colours.

Transformed Gift (Faggy?), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. I received this butcher apron in 2017, the spray-painted question "Faggy?" was part of the gift.

Liquid Poetry, 2020 Liquid Poetry is a series of works that occurred in March and April 2020 at the breakout of the world pandemic. It is threaded around the event of different humans assuming "Liquid Poetry#1" -a laurel based spirit made by Daniele Formica. Laurel was consumed in the temple of Apollo in Delphi by the Pythias in order to consult Apollo's oracle. Delphi is the centre of the ancient world, marked by the placement of the Omphalos.

The Father, 2021 Obtaining this candelabra in winter 2020 was the beginning of this sculptural process. I left the old, broken candelabra laying in my studio for weeks until this sentence about the father, came to mind: (he)who wishes to live the life of his son. I immediately decided to use the candelabra as a vessel for this sentence.

Moving out vibes, 2021 I took this image when moving out of my home in February 2021. This painting, a copy of Caravaggio's Medusa, had been in my living-room for 4 years. Taking it off the wall and laying it on the moving boxes created such a dramatic situation that needed to be immortalized.

Cape Hangers from A Comedy for 3 Dantes, 2020 It is often said that the dress does not make the monk, yet poetic license confutes this statement, especially when poetry is about covering and discovering. In this specific case 2 performers and myself make use of 3 red capes and comedy noses to transform into Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante wrote the divine comedy, that marks the blossoming of Humanistic thought (post Middleage theocentric thought). Dante’s comedy is the literary step in-between god and humans: he speaks of god’s laws and theological structures, but his gaze lies upon the sins and blessings of his own contemporaries: real people in Dante’s world. The performance similarly invites other humans to wear the red capes and become one of 3 Dantes. It is basically a ritual to become a Dante for 20 minutes.

A Comedy for 3 Dantes, 2020 It is often said that the dress does not make the monk, yet poetic license confutes this statement, especially when poetry is about covering and discovering. In this specific case 2 performers and myself make use of 3 red capes and comedy noses to transform into Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante wrote the divine comedy, that marks the blossoming of Humanistic thought (post Middleage theocentric thought). Dante’s comedy is the literary step in-between god and humans: he speaks of god’s laws and theological structures, but his gaze lies upon the sins and blessings of his own contemporaries: real people in Dante’s world. The performance similarly invites other humans to wear the red capes and become one of 3 Dantes. It is basically a ritual to become a Dante for 20 minutes.

The death of the death of the death of BILL, 2019 In the world there is an enormous amount of particles dispersed from my body forming an entity of kilos of dead skin, pieces of nails stuck in office carpets and dried sweat stains travelling on train seats. I gave this entity the name of BILL and analyzed its metaphysical composition with my drawings. All started after wearing the 222Banda Anniston Slim from Kappa my father gave me for Christmas 2018.The performance consists in exposing through oral form, with the help of the drawings, the theory of Bill, his entity, the particles, dispersion, identity and his 3 deaths.

The death of the death of the death of BILL, 2019 In the world there is an enormous amount of particles dispersed from my body forming an entity of kilos of dead skin, pieces of nails stuck in office carpets and dried sweat stains travelling on train seats. I gave this entity the name of BILL and analyzed its metaphysical composition with my drawings. All started after wearing the 222Banda Anniston Slim from Kappa my father gave me for Christmas 2018.The performance consists in exposing through oral form, with the help of the drawings, the theory of Bill, his entity, the particles, dispersion, identity and his 3 deaths.

Cornstarch body on rock (Big), 2020 The corn-starch bodies are inspired by the 28 chant of the Divine Comedy where Ulysses and crewmates cross Hercules’ “Ne plus ultra”, the limit of the ancient world, and are punished by divine power. More specifically a vortex opens in the sea waters and the ship start falling vertically. This moment, known as “il folle volo di Ulisse” (Ulysses deranged flight), symbolizes for the first time Ulysses changing travelling plane: from horizontal (across Mediterranean) to vertical (towards hell). The slowly decomposing corn-starch bodies, afflicted by gravity and filled almost until exploding of their organic content, are small portraits of Ulysses and crew’s aftermath from the fall.

A chair walks into a house, 2019 The performance guides the audience through the exploration, discovery, conquest, instauration of a totalitarian regime and falling of that regime in a private domestic space through the eyes of an inanimate protagonist: the fold out seminar IKEA Gunde chair.

2001:Hamlin, 2018 After looking into mice life in my studio at night, I began fantasizing upon a post-apocalyptic society of scavengers acting beneath the domain of order (or under the table, as some might say). A rather monumental and silent installation reflects on orderly views of a missed future.

Technology of writing: SPLENDOR, 2018 A blackboard is wiped with a wet mop and photographed with a Polaroid camera while its drying. Once completely dry, the word 'splendor' is written on the blackboard in capital letters with a chalk, then the process is repeated cyclically. The Polaroids are presented on the blackboard throughout the process, and the time lapse between fully wet and snapshot is reported on them.

Technology of writing: SPLENDOR, 2018 A blackboard is wiped with a wet mop and photographed with a Polaroid camera while its drying. Once completely dry, the word 'splendor' is written on the blackboard in capital letters with a chalk, then the process is repeated cyclically. The Polaroids are presented on the blackboard throughout the process, and the time lapse between fully wet and snapshot is reported on them.

A Dame Reflecting (leaning on bed), 2021 This image is drawn from a photograph I took in 2019. As one gets closer the lines that draw him start to be taken apart from each other and he disappears. As distance is taken our gaze composes him again. This walking closer and further reminded me of swimming in a pool.

Untitled (Alba Verde Bianco Rosso), 2019 I made this work after the vision of a green/white/red chequered room bending into a tunnel. Getting closer to the corner of the room seemed as if the pattern was infinitely replicating the two meeting walls and the floor -the X, Y, Z, coordinates, as if space and time were getting loose from one another. I had to think about the unfolding of tents, the space created by the bending of surfaces and lines, and patterns being both guidance and labyrinth to the sense of vision.

The beast ascends as the spirit of fear, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

I look at the wolf, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

U big black wolf, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

The beast ascends as the spirit of fear, 4 pillars, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

The clutches of time, 2020 The Clutches of Time is an ongoing series combining performance and drawing. In certain nights where I feel particularly inclined to do so, when there is absence of natural light and I have control over artificial light, I stage self-portraiture. Self-portraiture is indeed a stage and a ritual, where one focuses with their reflection in the mirror. In this case, the darkness outside makes it so that my windows, transparent glass in daylight, become mirrors in the night. To think that the night is nothing more than the shadow of this planet, and to think that light is the fastest speed known to today, makes the ritual of self-portraiture a dance of image as light and life as time.

Wolf Mask, 2021 Fabrizio de Andre sings in ‘Nella mia ora di liberta’ (In my freedom hour) that sometimes violence is more human than law. It seems to confute Kant << the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.>>, but it actually proposes that failing the moral law must also be accepted as part of being human. This is the case of the wolf. I fantasize about encounters between undefended humans and wolves. I wonder how I would imagine a wolf after an encounter in the dangers of the night, as if little red riding hood was asked to make some drawings. Fear is part of life; found outside the borders of empire.

Facing the light, (Giallo di Napoli), 2021 After reading about the origins of the popular pigment Giallo di Napoli, I started fantasizing about an ancient citizen walking alone at night around Pompei and being struck by the blinding light emanated from the Vesuvius eruption. This unfortunate bystander, while facing the sublime spectacle, must have instinctively brought their hands to the face, a natural gesture of self-defence and as well as censoring, with the metaphysical presupposition that not watching can count as avoiding being present in the apocalyptic eruption.

Boys by the pool at Ellen de Bruijne Projects, 2021 (Photo by Jeroen Desmalen) To swim in a pool of material belongings, plunging, drifting, whirling. The water is glistening, and so are the boys, staying afloat in the quiet streams of aquatic nostalgia. Fidgety silhouettes merge into one another, blurring the limits of their bodies. The water is inviting yet challenging, for its fluid state of being is not apt for humans to live in. Partly vulnerable, partly sensual, Formica’s boys exist in a voyeuristic vacuum where their beautiful bodies swing between subject and object by our gaze, and they coexist with repurposed memorabilia and blue introspections. In Boys by the Pool, Daniele Formica invites us to dip into his watery realm and navigate its liquidity.

Boys by the pool, 2021 In the series “Boys by the pool” I depict young male figures in water. Being in water is literally being in a different state of matter, the fluid one -a physical state that humans cannot live in, yet that often resembles what is happening in the mind, in the socius surrounding our consciousness. Being in water is then partly being vulnerable, partly sensual. Being afraid of leaving the surface, where air is, to check if we can reach and touch the bottom.

GRACE, 2020 I was taking a very long shower and having a lot of thoughts in my mind. The moment I came out and was about to slide my foot in the flip flop, I noticed how it funnily changed the meaning of the word embroiled in the carpet: I was reading Grace. This simple message experienced in intimacy lifted my spirit and caught a laugh from me. From then on I try to not touch it at all and just preserve it as an artwork.

NAU, 2020 "[...]e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare". (And drifting is to me sweet in this sea) from Giacomo Leopardi, L’infinito. I was very amused to stretch a relation between the etymology of the verb naufragare (nau/frago) and the phonemic transcription of English noun "Now" (nau). Drifting and present, or literally ship (nav) and present, are now together. The Neptune balls were collected by my family in August across the Mediterranean coast, then shipped to the Netherlands. I threaded them with one single blue thread.

Harvest Bag #3, 2021 The harvest bags are a series of sculptures consisting of purses from my ex partners and old friends filled with my belongings or collections of different nature and branches, shrubs or other vegetative elements. They are the meeting point of cornucopias, glamour vessels, still-lives, cabinets of curiosities and storages of meaningful memories.

Truth or Dare, 2021 An autobiographical image from my past with a stolen image from an archaeological find.

List of actions that deal with states of matter, 2020 I started to look at my belongings as if they were some parts of water closer to me in a swimming pool. When I would move my arm, the water closer to me would be affected much more than the water further away. In the same way these objects were being affected by the movements of my life. I was swimming in a pool of objects. I started to think about life in different states of matter and what this can mean.

Transformed Gift (AMICI), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. When I had to move house and pack/unpack everything, I read this shirt's etiquette for the first time and the word "AMICI" caught my attention.

Laurel Branch (Running Together from cave to cave), 2020 I was very amused by the discovered practice of cutting letters out of leaves so that branches from the poetry tree could speak.

Transformed Gift (Rainbow cape), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. I received this rainbow cape as a present for my 24th birthday; I was told it is meant to be worn at night during parties or other celebrations as it comes with a button that lights it up with rainbow colours.

Transformed Gift (Faggy?), 2021 The series transformed gifts brings together objects that were originally gifted to me by friends or relatives. Objects that I welcomed and appreciated, yet transformed into artworks for specific reasons. I received this butcher apron in 2017, the spray-painted question "Faggy?" was part of the gift.

Liquid Poetry, 2020 Liquid Poetry is a series of works that occurred in March and April 2020 at the breakout of the world pandemic. It is threaded around the event of different humans assuming "Liquid Poetry#1" -a laurel based spirit made by Daniele Formica. Laurel was consumed in the temple of Apollo in Delphi by the Pythias in order to consult Apollo's oracle. Delphi is the centre of the ancient world, marked by the placement of the Omphalos.

The Father, 2021 Obtaining this candelabra in winter 2020 was the beginning of this sculptural process. I left the old, broken candelabra laying in my studio for weeks until this sentence about the father, came to mind: (he)who wishes to live the life of his son. I immediately decided to use the candelabra as a vessel for this sentence.

Moving out vibes, 2021 I took this image when moving out of my home in February 2021. This painting, a copy of Caravaggio's Medusa, had been in my living-room for 4 years. Taking it off the wall and laying it on the moving boxes created such a dramatic situation that needed to be immortalized.

Cape Hangers from A Comedy for 3 Dantes, 2020 It is often said that the dress does not make the monk, yet poetic license confutes this statement, especially when poetry is about covering and discovering. In this specific case 2 performers and myself make use of 3 red capes and comedy noses to transform into Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante wrote the divine comedy, that marks the blossoming of Humanistic thought (post Middleage theocentric thought). Dante’s comedy is the literary step in-between god and humans: he speaks of god’s laws and theological structures, but his gaze lies upon the sins and blessings of his own contemporaries: real people in Dante’s world. The performance similarly invites other humans to wear the red capes and become one of 3 Dantes. It is basically a ritual to become a Dante for 20 minutes.

A Comedy for 3 Dantes, 2020 It is often said that the dress does not make the monk, yet poetic license confutes this statement, especially when poetry is about covering and discovering. In this specific case 2 performers and myself make use of 3 red capes and comedy noses to transform into Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante wrote the divine comedy, that marks the blossoming of Humanistic thought (post Middleage theocentric thought). Dante’s comedy is the literary step in-between god and humans: he speaks of god’s laws and theological structures, but his gaze lies upon the sins and blessings of his own contemporaries: real people in Dante’s world. The performance similarly invites other humans to wear the red capes and become one of 3 Dantes. It is basically a ritual to become a Dante for 20 minutes.

The death of the death of the death of BILL, 2019 In the world there is an enormous amount of particles dispersed from my body forming an entity of kilos of dead skin, pieces of nails stuck in office carpets and dried sweat stains travelling on train seats. I gave this entity the name of BILL and analyzed its metaphysical composition with my drawings. All started after wearing the 222Banda Anniston Slim from Kappa my father gave me for Christmas 2018.The performance consists in exposing through oral form, with the help of the drawings, the theory of Bill, his entity, the particles, dispersion, identity and his 3 deaths.

The death of the death of the death of BILL, 2019 In the world there is an enormous amount of particles dispersed from my body forming an entity of kilos of dead skin, pieces of nails stuck in office carpets and dried sweat stains travelling on train seats. I gave this entity the name of BILL and analyzed its metaphysical composition with my drawings. All started after wearing the 222Banda Anniston Slim from Kappa my father gave me for Christmas 2018.The performance consists in exposing through oral form, with the help of the drawings, the theory of Bill, his entity, the particles, dispersion, identity and his 3 deaths.

Cornstarch body on rock (Big), 2020 The corn-starch bodies are inspired by the 28 chant of the Divine Comedy where Ulysses and crewmates cross Hercules’ “Ne plus ultra”, the limit of the ancient world, and are punished by divine power. More specifically a vortex opens in the sea waters and the ship start falling vertically. This moment, known as “il folle volo di Ulisse” (Ulysses deranged flight), symbolizes for the first time Ulysses changing travelling plane: from horizontal (across Mediterranean) to vertical (towards hell). The slowly decomposing corn-starch bodies, afflicted by gravity and filled almost until exploding of their organic content, are small portraits of Ulysses and crew’s aftermath from the fall.

A chair walks into a house, 2019 The performance guides the audience through the exploration, discovery, conquest, instauration of a totalitarian regime and falling of that regime in a private domestic space through the eyes of an inanimate protagonist: the fold out seminar IKEA Gunde chair.

2001:Hamlin, 2018 After looking into mice life in my studio at night, I began fantasizing upon a post-apocalyptic society of scavengers acting beneath the domain of order (or under the table, as some might say). A rather monumental and silent installation reflects on orderly views of a missed future.

Technology of writing: SPLENDOR, 2018 A blackboard is wiped with a wet mop and photographed with a Polaroid camera while its drying. Once completely dry, the word 'splendor' is written on the blackboard in capital letters with a chalk, then the process is repeated cyclically. The Polaroids are presented on the blackboard throughout the process, and the time lapse between fully wet and snapshot is reported on them.

Technology of writing: SPLENDOR, 2018 A blackboard is wiped with a wet mop and photographed with a Polaroid camera while its drying. Once completely dry, the word 'splendor' is written on the blackboard in capital letters with a chalk, then the process is repeated cyclically. The Polaroids are presented on the blackboard throughout the process, and the time lapse between fully wet and snapshot is reported on them.