Poetry Room, Modica

The rooms located on Via S. Domenico in the town hall square, in Modica, are filled with large pages and large open volumes, arranged vertically; the shapes of the books and individual sheets, whose heights exceed that of a man, appear in the shadows, with only their contours and the white, empty pages barely visible.

The visitor who passes through these rooms is guided from room to room, from volume to volume, by the poet’s voice and the writing that appears and disappears on the white paper; indeed, alternately, from each individual volume, comes Quasimodo’s voice reading the content, while the pages, following the reading, are backlit and make the printed poetry accessible.

Moving the gaze and physically shifting from one book to another, from one page to another, from one room to another, the poetry guides and surrounds us.

Among the volumes, the poet’s face also becomes visible, almost imperceptible, rarefied, appearing in a sequence of photographic portraits animated by very slow movements: the poet’s eyes look at us, the various expressions and poses command attention, giving a face to the voice and the writing.