8th – 13th April

Rho Fiera Milano – Pavs. 22-24

Photo credits: Michael Avedon

LA DOLCE ATTESA

One of the worst things in life is having to wait. Except, perhaps, for the birth of a child. But that’s not what we’re talking about, unfortunately. We mean waiting for a report, a medical response. The sort of waiting that, in real life, becomes suspended reality. When we’re awaiting our fate, all we can do is wait. When our future depends on a doctor, on a laboratory, on a third party, we just have to hang on in there. Still, tense, nervous … and anguished. Waiting rooms, as they have been conceived up to now, serve only to amplify the anguish. What with white walls, uncomfortable chairs, monitors that project numbers and shifts, and grumpy staff, we end up obsessively hunched over our smartphones, and time ceases to pass.

So perhaps we should rethink the way we wait. Trick it. Travel loosely and lose ourselves in the journey as if in a vague sense of hypnosis, of dizziness. That way, perhaps, waiting can become less painful. Because it becomes something else. Our waiting room aspires to be something else. It doesn’t force you to stay still, but lets you go. A little trip, like children, on reassuring rides. As adults, the horses have turned into shell-like armchairs, like maternal wombs. Disaffected employees are replaced by men and women who give off an air of tranquillity. They smile at you and, if necessary, know how to give you a paternal and disinterested pat. Gazing into thin air. The only form of distraction that provides an escape from the anguished wait. The eye focuses on a jumble of frosted glass that conceals and deforms the only thing that can extend our life, if it continues to beat. The heart. Hidden, mysterious, semi invisible, yet still there to remind us that all is not lost. Once the short trip is over, and everything has been turned into sweet anticipation, we move towards our destiny. For that, a suitable place has yet to be invented.  

Quote

Waiting is agony. The sweet anticipation of pregnancy is a journey. A stunning and mesmerising one.

（责任编辑：水晶）