"Wish you were…"

Brief explanation of the artwork: At a deeper level of analysis, the image is clearly inspired by Storm Thorgerson cover for Pink Floyd's album "wish you were here", however my intention is to bring it a "step forward", translating it into a metaphorical depiction of contemporary Italy, as well as the artist Enrico Manera did in 1999 with the sculpture "Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio" by Boccioni (1913). I intentionally wanted to make it look like a "collage", by placing the two figures in a different scenario, imagining an ideal painting by De Chirico, which would emphasize the oniric perception helped by the twilight colors, as if everything was happening in a dream. So doing, I wanted my characters to wear the traditional venetian masks, standing right in the centre of the new urban district of Milan, that was recently created in view of the forthcoming Expò 2015. The man on the left hand side, has the black mask, that was used by doctors at the time of the bubonic plague. The long nose, represented the limit distance he had to observe between himself and the patiente in order to avoid getting infected by the disease; in this case he embodies the government. The other man, supposedly a common person from the crowd, is wearing a white mask, expressing innocence or in some ways a gentle form of ignorance. Furthermore, standing right next to them on the background are two buildings. One is connected to public authority, and the other one to a bank. Therefore, without any specific reference to any of them, rather than a symbolic concept, I meant to represent the central columns on which a Country is based, and how they can interact and affect one another. Even though they never get to touch the true "day-by-day" life and reality of one another, behind the mask hides the "mutual trust", that the common person grants to the politician by paying taxes and giving a vote, a sort of metaphorical "contract" signed by a shaking hands. As they say: Nothing is certain but death and taxes… On a more superficial level, the image easily resembles what anyone has experienced more than once: a lie.