Everything that I see has survived the storm, but no one and nothing is able to continue living. The collective memory of a place is fading. The presence of absence can be seen everywhere. Perceiving a physical object and then incorporating this data into my being feels like being wounded in a sensitive spot. Nature ignores the presence of man and devours whatever he leaves behind. 

The project A House For Sale is the result of an artist-in-residence programme that I completed at La Baldi Art – Cultivate in Tuscany, Italy in 2023. Montegiovi in Tuscany has an important place in Italian history. Today, due to drought and other effects of climate change coupled with a scarcity of jobs, its youth and middle age populations keep moving away to the cities, leaving behind the elderly. Despite the efforts of various organizations to preserve the culture of places like this, despite the pristine beauty of places like this, the surviving residents continue to post ‘for sale’ signs on the walls. 

Each day of this project I made unplanned trips to different neighborhoods of Montegiovi to take photos. By focusing my lens on the mundane abnormalities in the environment caused by human things that were discarded, forgotten and reclaimed by nature, my images capture Montegiovi’s silent, desperate struggle to stay alive.