The New Virus Alphabet

Viruses are attacking us these months with a virulence we never would have thought.
They’re viruses that are so unknown that we still don’t have a vaccine.
The covid-19 virus started to decimate people in China a few months ago, and the coronavirus arrived in Italy, at least in a very strong way, at the end of January and then became a real national problem at the end of February 2020.

The covid-19 virus in our lives

We began to go out of the house less, to repair our nose from the virus and mouth with something that resembled a mask because it was unobtainable in shops and pharmacies.
Then some cities became red zone and nobody could go in or out of them.

Before the middle of March, the whole of Italy went into lockdown.

Then all the schools and Universities were closed not to spread the covid-19.
Then little by little the museums, galleries, exhibitions, public places.
Work changed skin and became smartworking where possible.

The covid-19 virus has changed our habits

Schools closed, bars closed, we’ve closed everything.
Only doctors, pharmacies and supermarkets are left.
Everyone at home, everyone inside our apartments, self-certification to go out and only for three reasons: for work, to stock up on food, to go to the doctor.
The covid-19 virus that changed all our habits.

Individual freedom has been set aside for public health reasons. We do not know how asymptomatic we are, we do not know who is in quarantine.
All we know is that to defeat the virus, you have to stay at home and the police check everyone on the street to see why they are not at home.

Covid-19: a virus that cleans the air

The cars are stationary, like most public transport: trains, planes, buses.
The smog is going away, the cities are cleaner. There is less noise, less aggression on the street, less traffic, almost non-existent.
Paradoxically a virus that kills us, is improving the environment outside human beings.
This coronavirus shows us that life, nature, takes over and puts us aside. It is we humans who have turned the rules of nature upside down.

The virus that forces us into solitude

The covid-19 gives us a metaphorical loneliness, because we’re all together at home, not out in the city. But within the four walls we have a dilated time where if possible we work, otherwise we read, cook, think, sleep, make art.

Virus and Art

Society is also rethinking the enjoyment of art.
All museums and galleries are closing and digital archives are opening and direct with experts and artists.
People, in order not to think about the virus and to avoid getting corona virus, start using the internet to really discover the world. They study, take notes, discover artists they didn’t know.

Virus and my Art

I would say that any artist, whether a writer, a musician, a painter, knows what loneliness means. It is an essential condition for those who create.
Being in a studio, alone, is the true essence of the creator.
But the forced condition caused by the virus of not being free can create emptiness and lack of stimuli.
There are kinetic artists who need a walk to focus their ideas.
I am one of them and I have to invent ways to move within the four walls, to find the stimulus to create. I don’t particularly like sleeping, cooking, listening to TV or radio for hours. And the virus has transformed my everyday life.

How the covid-19 virus changed my rhythm

Not perceiving the enemy because the virus is invisible, created a strange underground anxiety. If I were to identify this fear, just read the front pages of Kafka’s Metamorphosis to know what I mean. I listen to my breath in the morning when I wake up and try to figure out if I’m still healthy.
I know perfectly well that’s not a good way to start. In fact, I’ve increased my meditation and try to move more around the house.
The rhythm of sleep has changed, I sleep less and I wake up often.
I don’t remember dreams.
I draw more, but the “virus” theme has completely taken over my every thought.

What can artistically change covid-19

Everything is different now, but the human being has a great capacity for adaptation and it is possible to forget all this experience.
But these life changes are global and affect health, transport, the whole economy and human relations.
So I think a lot of things are going to change thanks to the virus.
We don’t know how many things will change.
The life we know so far has changed, that’s for sure.
And it may happen that everything we know now, will not be the same in the immediate future after this corona virus.
At the moment our individual freedom is being put to the test, but the planet is less polluted.
We travel very little on the streets and only for good reasons.
Our economy with this virus is disastrous.
There is no work and we are all stuck.

Art in the days of covid-19

Almost to exorcise the fear, songs about the coronavirus, paintings and short stories about the virus are emerging.
I think it’s important to turn this fear of the virus into a culture.
I think it is important to find a balance between the life we have always had and this forced imprisonment of all of us thanks to the virus.

At the moment I appreciate: the clean air, the silence, the calm, and my health that still exists.
I’m no longer free to move, I work, but I can’t send almost anything.
But I create new things.
The images you see in this post are drawn during the day thinking about the virus and its consequences on our life.
The virus has really changed me. But it’s not a personal experience.
With speed the covid-19 has entered every country in the world and we are all in the same situation.
It remains to be seen what the upside will be in this pestilential virus period.
It remains to be seen whether the virus will change us for the better and whether the world will reconsider how badly it has treated nature.
In the meantime, #stayhome.