“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 is a project about absence, longing, and freedom. My photography tries to deal with the same issues.
Dispersal began as a project about wolves and still is, but it is more about the longing for them and for what they can represent. Wolves, a species which is still in danger, are still a powerful symbol for mystery, freedom, and nature’s independence from the will of mankind.
“Disperasl cases” are the wolves who leave the pack cause they could not fit into the social structure ruling their society, and wander off by themselves in search of a new place to settle. I probably can’t help to feel a “dispersal case” myself.
GPS trackings of an italian wolf, Sic, are the starting point of the project, but vanish into the quest itself.
The complete work involves physical objects, data, maps and a box with evidences, visible here:
