TU SEI IL GIARDINO

At the core of the project are nine cocoon-shaped sculptures, each offering a different perception of being and a vector of development:

Name, Body, Mind, Intuition, Memory, Abyss, Ego, Will and Spirit.

Created from plants gathered in the Vendicari area, a site of ancient Greek settlement on Sicily’s coast, and scorched by sun, salt, and time. The sculptures combine fragile organic matter with epoxy resin. Functioning as both physical forms and symbolic states, the cocoons form a living ecosystem of the self, reflecting the vulnerability, resilience, and mutability of human nature.

The film is a journey through this inner landscape, structured in nine acts, each shaped by one of the cocoons. Moving through the landscape, the traveler uses her guitar as an instrument of dialogue with each cocoon, embarking on an alchemical journey through the layers of her being.

Poetic texts weave through the film, holding together pride, despair, and the beauty of human existence.

The film was shot among the centuries-old olive groves on the slopes of Monte Cassino in Italy. The sculptural forms of the trees reflect the complexity of existence and resilience in becoming, transforming the landscape into a place of initiation.

The installation extends the film into physical space. The same cocoons become sculptural sound bodies, each containing its own voice. Together they generate an organic sonic and vibrational field that the visitor enters and navigates. The work explores the passage from observation to participation, where transformation becomes a lived, embodied experience.

The project is rooted in my personal experience of displacement, migration, and re-orientation. Moving between rupture and continuity, between exile and belonging, these journeys have led me to understand “home” as an inner ecology. You Are the Garden emerges from an ongoing exploration that began in my earlier works, My River and Betrothal to the Sea, and continues to investigate identity, freedom, and home as a spiritual territory cultivated through a dialogue between memory, shadow, will, and becoming.

You Are the Garden was first presented as an immersive exhibition in February 2026 at Rocca Janula, Cassino, Italy, with the support of the Municipality of Cassino. The film and installation were brought together as a unified spatial experience. The sculpture Nome, part of the project, received a Special Mention at the COMEL Arte Contemporanea Award (Italy, 2024). I continue to expand the project through ceramic sculptural works currently in progress.

Film credits

Concept, direction, scenography, sculpture, and editing: Maria Elena Bonet
Director of photography: Andrei Voskresenski, Maria Elena Bonet
Original music: 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