O.Z.2
SERENA VESTRUCCI
VINCENZO LATRONICO

March 11 – May 4, 2014

Serena Vestrucci – Vincenzo Latronico

“…”

“I’ll ask you again: why didn’t you want to show them?”

“I don’t know.” “Does it seem to you like they don’t work?”

“I don’t think that’s the point.” “Do you feel like they don’t represent you?”

“I’m not interested in being represented.” “Then what’s the meaning of them?”

“They could be part of a process. Listen: imagine that you and I have been together for a while but not that long. Let’s say a few months, six months. We begin to get to know each other deep down; we manage to understand each other to a certain extent. But there are also things that remain unexplored, that we’ve tried not to show to each other. I haven’t met your family, you don’t know about my teenage years. We’re not in the habit of fighting, we’ve only seriously fought once or twice. And then we patched things up with long, clear, heartfelt emails where we tried to recognise our faults but also point out the shortcomings of the other without…”

“So if you argue with your girlfriend you email her afterwards?” “Why not?” “Never mind. Go on.”

“In these emails we point out the other person’s shortcomings without them being seen as accusations – we say things like the impression I got was that you and I realise that’s not what you mean, but I…Yes, they’re laughable, they’re convoluted expressions, but they’re also a form of delicacy.”

“They’re a form of fear.”

“But also of love. There you are. There may be a lot of drafts for these kinds of emails. Perhaps you wrote it in Word before you send it, and in the final email you can see from the font that it’s a copy-and-paste of the file, and this softens you because you catch a glimpse of all the work that’s gone into it, the hours spent wondering will she understand me? Will she get pissed off? Why are you making that face?”

“I’m saying nothing.”

“I mean, think about these draft versions. Do they represent you? No, that’s why you didn’t send them. Do they not work? Not really, in that they partly achieve their purpose. So why don’t you send them too? Why don’t you want to show them?”

“…”

“But in reality, it’s as if you were showing them anyway. They’re there, and even if they’re invisible they determine what is seen – what you sent in the end – like dark matter that…”

“Come on, no physics.”

“OK, you get the picture. Maybe there’s no use in showing them. They do their job. The message gets through, and it also gets through thanks to everything that isn’t said. If something is left behind, it’s still alright in the end anyway, right?”

“…”

“…”

“It’s a good thing we’re not together anymore, huh.”

Vincenzo Latronico for Love Affairs by Serena Vestrucci (Rome, February 2014)

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