YOU ARE HERE

YOU ARE HERE © Andrea Alessio
2010 - 2013
Inkjet prints, 140cm x 105cm, edition of 10

This project was realized over a period of two years at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics based in Legnaro (Padua, Italy)
This university laboratory is an Italian center of excellence for subatomic research. Scientists from all over the world come to this place every day.
I realized this project in first instance to document and explore this place, using photography as a means to discover and understand a reality that was completely new and unknown to me and my daily life.
Secondly, the camera became my instrument to frame and measure an apparently cold and hostile environment.
One day, I saw a security sign with an arrow pointing at an empty space, and the words YOU ARE HERE. I felt lost. The metaphor was clear…
Now, these images are a journey into another world, less real and much more metaphysical. Maybe also an allegory of my own country, a land of inventors, a land fallen into disgrace, that is trying to find a way to rise up, among great difficulties.

Andrea Alessio