Non è tutto oro quello che luccica (Not all that glitters is gold) a site-specific project, made during the art residency at THP Tuscany House of Photography (2020) develops in different directions. On one side the will to create an “art piece hunt” brought to an incessant movement and to a recognition of some hints that could bring on the research following the main characteristic of hosting area and culture. Moreover this path became also the way to think about the proìcess of conception and creation of an art piece. On the other side there is a straight reference to the book Metamorphoses or the golden ass of Apuleio: the curious travel of the protagonist Lucio was the starting inspiration to which, somehow, the journey of the artist is overlapped around Palaia, the village where they were living.
The various encounters and coincidences between the journey and the fictional character brought to a complete cohesion of the original text and the description of the legs and hints that had grabbed the artists attention: the classic referement is become the daily diary of the itinerary on the territory.
The title is intentionally ironic because the artists have covered, painted, decorated, sometimes hidden and some others underlined objects and elements with a golden color during their walks. Until cover with gold organic paint a real donkey, in a way winking to the protagonist of Apuleio’ text. In this way the figure of the donkey and maybe the one of the artist too, often followed by prejudices, assumes now a new value. The final metamorphoses aims to portray also the process of creation and transformation of Orecchie D’Asino.
Non è tutto oro quello che luccica becomes a work of literary interpretation and consideration on the artistic and generative though it self.
Cercavo di muovermi imitando un uccello: ma piume niente, e nemmeno ali. I miei peli invece, quelli si, cominciano a farsi più spessi e si mutano in setole, e la mia pelle morbida si indurisce in cuoio e all’estremità delle mani si perde la divisione e tutte le dita si contraggono in un unico zoccolo, e dalla fine della mia spina dorsale viene fuori una lunga coda. Ed ecco che la mia testa si fa enorme, la bocca lunga lunga, le narici si dilatano, le labbra mi cascano giù; allo stesso modo, anche le orecchie crescono a dismisura e si ricoprono di peli ispidi. e di questa disgraziata metamorfosi non trovavo nessun lato positivo se non il fatto che una certa mia dote naturale cresceva e cresceva. (...) e da quando, ormai senza scampo, guardandomi a una a una tutte le parti del corpo, mi vidi trasformato non in un uccello ma in asino. Volevo lamentarmi ma privo com’ero ormai delle facoltà umane del gesto e della parola, feci l’unica cosa che potevo, e, con il labbro inferiore piegato all’ingiù ma guardandola di traverso con gli occhi umidi, la rimproveravo in silenzio.
