I was reluctant to do this interview, because I thought I had to deal with my failures. In reality, thinking about it, I realized that the unfinished is anything but a failure.
If I think back to the unfinished projects in my life, there are all colors: some burn on the skin, they are red like fire, others have pastel colors because they are sleeping, others are gray, they are part of the shaded area of myself.
If I tell you Unfinished what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?
I was reluctant to do this interview because I felt I had to deal with my failures. In reality, thinking about it, I realized that the unfinished is anything but a failure. I believe that human beings live on unfinished products, which are what drives us to get up in the morning, to give us the stimulus for new projects, to make them be reborn. The unfinished is the spice of life, more than failure, it helps me reflect on myself.
Unfinished: what color / shape is it?
The colors of the rainbow. If I think back to the unfinished projects in my life, there are all colors: some burn on the skin, they are red like fire, others have pastel colors because they are sleeping, still others are gray, they are part of the shadow zone of myself. Then there are unfinished ones with predominant colors: I am thinking for example of my project for the Museo del Blu, which is obviously blue in all its shades. The Family mix project is orange and blue like the colors we have chosen for its communication and which have been part of my life for three years.
Is there something you have left undone in your life?
Many things. I am thinking of projects in the strictest sense of the term, those written, thought, on which I have invested time and have not completed, but also of the larger life projects. Family mix, the babysitting exchange network between families, is the most representative of my many unfinished ones. For me it is the unfinished of the unfinished because the project went a long way, I invested a lot of time and energy, there were many people involved. Our platform would have made it possible to make a real network of families who could help each other with babysitting. What I ask myself every day is why, to date, no one else has thought of making it. Then, among the unfinished ones dear to me, there is the Blue Museum, a museum dedicated to this color, which has many connections with my city, from the sea to blue jeans. The project is written, I have presented it on a few occasions. When it is on paper for me a project is already born.
What is your relationship with unfinished things?
Fluctuating, I feel I have a daily relationship with the unfinished, experienced in all ways, with many different colors. I have the precise memory of my first unfinished which for me is gray. At the end of an organization work for a fair trade fair in Milan, I was asked for a final report, the fair went well, but the relationship never came to fruition due to a whole series of contingencies. I have been carrying this bundle with me for twenty years, it is still there in my thoughts. For me, the unfinished has to do with identity: being an eternal undergraduate (enrolled in 1993 and graduated in 2007) was a component of my identity, as was the fact that I was without a license until I was 35. The things I don’t finish are pieces of identity that I can hardly break away from.
Something unfinished that you would like finished
Many many things, before I die I would like the female situation to upgrade. From the moment emancipation began there has been an acceleration, but we are still far from effective equality. I would like to see it and in my small way I also work to make it happen.
Where do you keep your unfinished projects?
I keep them in the computer, but I learned to talk about them, before I was afraid and I only talked about them if I trusted the person. I thought that my ideas might be stolen, then I learned to overcome this fear and I realized that the more we talk about them, the more chance we have of realizing them.
What is a fertilizer for you?
Relationships, exchange, talk, meeting people and other projects, exchange of ideas. For example, being a teacher at the Master has fertilized me a lot because it was a year in which I built different relationships at many levels and learned many things.
3 words that you would match with unfinished?
Identity, dissatisfaction, stimulus.