RETURNING THE CERAMIC PIECE

For some time now, I have been deeply interested in communication through objects—in the way something material (a stone, a flower, a fragment of something...) ceases to be merely a "thing" and becomes a vehicle for connection. The act of giving and offering then becomes a bridge toward another person. I am particularly drawn to the idea of leaving something half-hidden in a place and imagining the moment when someone discovers it, provoking a fleeting surprise, a small interruption in the flow of their everyday life.

On one of my walks, I took a train to Sant Celoni. From there, I wandered on foot for several hours until I reached a village called Gualba. Following a path, I entered a residential area where, on the entrance wall of a house, I found a broken ceramic piece. It had been placed there as though someone, after it had shattered, had left it by the door intending to take it to the recycling bin later. After thinking about it for a while, I gathered all the fragments and put them in my backpack. When I arrived at the studio, I laid them out on the floor: there were nineteen pieces in total.

After spending several days reassembling those nineteen fragments and restoring the object to almost its original form and condition, I returned to Gualba and left it in the very place where I had found it. After the gesture of collecting, repairing, and returning, all that remains is the space of imagination from which I picture its owner encountering those ceramic fragments that, unexpectedly, now appear restored.

Piece conceived within the context of the PERI/FERAL study program at einaidea.