Due occhi m’han guardato

“Due occhi m’han guardato” explores the complex entanglement between gaze, power, and protection. Rooted in the ancient and widespread belief in the evil eye (the idea that a look, charged with envy or desire, can harm) the installation reflects on how the gaze can enchant, wound, possess, and preserve. The parallel with the energies of an exhibition space is evident.

Taking inspiration from English anthropologist Estella Canziani’s accounts of rituals in Abruzzo at the end of the 19th century, I recreated a protective ceremony once performed to ward off the malocchio. Around a rural hut, fifty sculptures stand like silent witnesses, embodying both the threat and the shield of the eye. Inside, elements of the original ritual are reimagined, activating the space as both sanctuary and theatre.

These fragments of mystical and popular culture are meant to remain hidden, protected from profanation. That is why the ritual was performed in secret, before the exhibition opened, what remains now are only traces, the residues of a gesture meant for the unseen. The hut, at once shelter and boundary, preserves this invisible threshold, guarding what cannot be fully shown.

The material, like earth, flour, salt, leaves, and grains, are humble and archaic. They recall a world of interdependence between human life and the land, where gestures of protection and storytelling were deeply embedded in daily life. Here, the gaze is not only affliction but also connection. It holds the power to bind, to narrate, to transform bodies into trophies or talismans. In this fragile architecture of memory, the eye becomes a portal between violence and care, enchantment and survival.