The project Destiny_destination (2020) was created specifically for the exhibition space of the Essiccatoio Bozzoli, a historical building in San Vito al Tagliamento that was formerly a silkworm cocoon drying room. Vidoni created it in collaboration with Swiss anthropologist Alessandro Monsutti, who is originally from Friuli Venezia Giulia. Wooden suitcases are placed on the floor of the hall, which fascinates and bewilders us at the same time due to its size. Each suitcase bears a unique and unrepeatable story, such as memories preserved or the image of someone’s hand photographed and placed on its surface: stories of emigration and immigration, separation, and pain, but also courage and hope. Leaving does not only mean running away, but also seeking new opportunities, being curious to know the world, being hungry for life.
Through the voices of several protagonists, four video installations lead the visitors to examine aspects and themes of migration. Here we can discover different and unique experiences with a common thread: that of Rina, originally from Tarcento, who left for Switzerland at the age of twenty looking for a job, just like Angelica who left Romania to go to Sardinia and then Friuli. There is the story of Tauseer, a young medical student from Pakistan, or the story of Sahel, a former soldier of the Afghan special forces, who came to Italy to flee the Taliban. There are many experiences where emigration opened new perspectives on life. We then meet Gilberto who has established himself as an entrepreneur after leaving Magnano in Riviera and travelling the world; Anna who moved to Brussels from Tarcento for an internship during her studies, and managed to pursue an important professional career; Lalo, who, despite leaving his land in South America due to two military coups, has always been actively involved in the improvement of the country that welcomed him. We can find the outlines of the hands of these women and men exhibited in the hall, reproduced on large sheets of paper by Vidoni. The palms of the hands are marked by their life lines. They are different from each other and unique, just as every human being is unique and inimitable. By reading them, as in the ancient divination practice of chirology, we will find not only the experiences and the fate of these people, but perhaps something about ourselves as well.
"The installation project Destiny_destination is an invitation to move from a state-centric perspective towards a sensitive look at the nuances of lived experiences. It covers the trajectories of seven people who have left Friuli at different moments of their existence or have come to the region from distant horizons. The Friulans’ experiences are as heterogeneous as those of non-Friulans. But all these destinies tell us about a common humanity, characterized by a tension between the attachment to the places where one grew up and curiosity for the world beyond the walls of one’s home".
Alessandro Monsutti
Carlo Vidoni was born in Udine on 7 December 1968. He studied at the Giovanni Sello State Institute of Art in Udine, and earned a diploma in Graphic Design and Photography. He started exhibiting his works at a very young age in Tarcento, a hill town north of Udine, where he currently lives and works.
In Vidoni’s installations, objects lose their original function to become containers, nests, or supports, detached and decontextualised, unaware symbols of the life and dramas of contemporary man. Vidoni perceives and questions the constant and reciprocal interaction between man and nature, being an acute observer of the social and cultural context of his time.
His artistic research includes various expressive fields, oscillating between sculptural and installation experimentation as well as photography and drawing.
