Da Vita ad Vitam | ART IN HOSPICE
Quality of life at the end of the life.
Client / Il Gabbiano coop.
Artist / Maddalena Fanconi
Based on psychotherapists studies, the Board Direction of 'Il Gabbiano' Hospice has decided to se art to promote its services and to talk about Palliative Care and Death.
Art has the same language as psychotherapy : it is a language of emotions, memories, personal experience. They use signs to lead a variety of meanings.
Pilot Project / 5 different decorative painted roundel to set on the Hospice's ceiling.
You are invited to explore in details one of the works titled 'Da vita ad Vitam'.
The artwork is set in a place where meaning of life and suffering are the main patients' thoughts.
This decoration wants to help run through the human existence again, not overcoming the death step.
To be prepared to leave this world and accept suffering as a mystery that keep us closed to Christ it is necessary that mankind understand that this life it is just a short piece of time, a small piece of the eternity project that God has planned for humankind. For this reason the decoration is developed on circle, symbol of the divine perfection and spiritual values. Circle through its strong unity and perpetuity movement is used as symbol of eternity and time flowing as well.
The path represented on the roundel’s decoration seems have a never-ending movement , not a clear beginning or ending. Christians are aware that life is accomplished in the Resurrection: the moment in which every humankind will pass at the eternal life.
On the picture you can read this path starting from the shell: symbol associated to pilgrims who used it to drink, It refer to the man's transit in this world: he/she is like a pilgrim. For a long time the shell was an important symbol for Christians because its shape represents excellence of the divine work and also because it is able to transform a simple grain into a precious stone: the pearl. Shell is made by rough and grainy compound. Shell and the presence of female bodies are a reference to the merely physical and material human component and they have a remembrance to the maternal womb which creates and ward.
From the shell three bodies develop on the space sequentially: they represent the path of human's life in the earthly condition. These shapes have an evolution, from a fetal position the next two figures have a clearer shape like to suggest a maturation, an awareness of their being. In this prospective suffering, illness and death are painful events for everyone but, often are a precious tool that bring and help us to complete our path and be ready for the parting from this earthly status.
The three bodies end with a fourth one, a kind of ballerina who seems flying to another space. From here, in effect, three birds are placed like a rainbow of light: the number three alludes the divine Trinity and the bird itself symbolizes the human soul. Birds fly high, meaning the man’s desire to leave the earthly life and get close to God.
On the roundel midline there is a dark engraved line which runs between the shell and the birds,
The line represents Death, a necessary step that divide life from the Life.
On a merely visual point of view, the composition is balanced and harmonic. It is possible see the contrast between cold and warm colours. One side tinted of blu and violet alludes at the moment when evening is coming, where the body is tired and the mind is pensively: it is time of introversion, spirituality and searching for meaning. From the center to the birds there are warm and light colours expanding as sun beans. Gold, orange and yellow with shades of green recall to the morning’s light, the light of the deep knowledge: the Light of God. Gold refers to transcendence and regality. It represents the moment of the meeting with God: culmination and fulfillment of human existence.
FINAL RESULT
Thanks for attending at this path.
MADDALENA FANCONI
