Plants have always been more than subjects to me. They are carriers of memory, connecting nature and culture, embodying both resilience and fragility. The endemic species of the Dolomites, where my family roots lie, inspire me deeply. These plants have survived extreme conditions for millennia, and in them I see a metaphor for cultural endurance. Painting them allows me to explore identity conflicts, not by imitating landscapes but by creating imagined spaces that shift between tradition and digital transformation. The botanical becomes, for me, a living archive of who we are – individually and collectively.

My work also turns to deception and memory, two themes that constantly weave through my practice. I am fascinated by the bee orchids (Ophrys), masters of mimicry. They lure insects with the illusion of a partner, ensuring their own survival through a double deception. For me, this reflects the way memory itself deceives us – blurring over time, reshaping the past until illusion becomes truth.

I bring these ideas into painting and installation. Large canvases are suspended so that the viewer must move around them, while the space is charged with personal references: fragrant hay from my family’s farm in Val Gardena recalls childhood games with my twin brother, and resin-coated portraits of orchids bear the names of our toys, Lisa and Mimi. In another painting, a faint face emerges – a trace of my brother, layered with my own reflection.

These crossings – between nature and culture, deception and memory, personal history and collective identity – form the core of my work. I see nature as a place of resistance and renewal, where traditions and languages can survive, and where memory, even in its deceptions, keeps us connected. My paintings and installations seek to hold onto that fragile threshold, like the moment before sleep, when reality and dream begin to blur.