TU SEI IL GIARDINO

At the core of the project is a journey through an inner landscape structured in nine layers of perception:

Name, Body, Mind, Intuition, Memory, Abyss, Ego, Will and Spirit. These layers are embodied in sculptural cocoons that function as both physical forms and symbolic states. Together, they compose the human personality as a living ecosystem of shifting conditions, where every direction becomes a choice and every movement a reconfiguration of the self.

The film develops as a nine-part ritual and offers an external, contemplative perspective on this transformation. It is set in the ancient Mediterranean olive grove, where the landscape carries a sense of time and endurance. Within this environment, the sculptures appear as states of being rather than physical objects, embedded in a poetic and musical passage through nature. Poetic texts weave through the film, holding together pride, despair and the beauty of human existence.

The protagonist, a musician, moves through this landscape as both observer and participant. She uses the guitar as an instrument of co-creation, entering into dialogue with the cocoons as inner states. Through this process she gradually integrates the fragmented aspects of the self, including the Abyss as shadow. The film culminates in the composition of Spirit, marking an initiation through acceptance of all inner layers, from which a personal voice can emerge.

The installation translates this structure into a spatial environment composed of organic sculptural cocoons, emphasizing constant metamorphosis. Each cocoon contains its own embedded sound, forming a living sonic field. Together they create a non-linear landscape of perception that the viewer physically enters, crossing from observation into embodied experience.

The work unfolds as a sequence between film and installation. The viewer first encounters the film as a contemplative perspective, and then enters the installation, where the same transformation becomes physical and participatory.

The project is rooted in my personal trajectory of displacement and reorientation shaped by political exile. Growing up between different geographies, between rupture and continuity, exile and belonging, I came to understand identity not as fixed but as a continuous process of inner cultivation. “Home” becomes not a place but an inner ecology, something that is continuously tended within shifting terrain.

This dual movement from image to space, from contemplation to embodiment, is central to the project. It reflects an understanding of cinema not as a closed form but as a porous system capable of expanding into physical, shared experience.

Film credits

Concept, direction, production design, sculpture and editing: Maria Elena Bonet
Director of photography: Andrei Voskresenski
Original score: Olga Podgayskaya
Guitar and performance: Natalia Lipnitskaya
Poetic texts: Giampaolo Cataudella
Voices: Giampaolo Cataudella, Maria Elena Bonet

Sound post-production: Pavel Sinila

Installation sound: Maria Elena Bonet, Olga Podgayskaya, Pavel Sinila