(to shift, to touch, to remove, to transfer, to take out)
I started this project in 2008 when I entered an empty house immediately after their former inhabitants moved after 50 years of living. Though the house was completely empty, it kept the trace of an apparent life. I was facing a real container of stories, its spaces and corners appeared still full of habits and daily atmosphere. I found myself recreating the former status of the house through the traces left by its former inhabitants: the sitting hall with the clear mark of the sofa on the wall and a series of rectangular white shapes on the paper wall left by the frames of the paintings removed. The kitchen had a weird grayish drawing lying in a niche: the trace of the fridge. In another corner, the bedroom could be recognized by a dark rectangular shape left on the floor or by parallel marks left on the wall: the bedside tables.
The most diverse objects had been left: old TV aerials were still connected on the wall, plugs or kitchen hooks were lying on the tiles. Useless objects forgotten.
After that episode, by word of mouth, with the help of a house mover and an architect I succeeded in finding many empty houses just after a move where shooting my photos; I often find analogies between the traces and the objects which have been left but, crossing the threshold of an empty house I always find something surprising, something that makes me smile and gives me a peaceful feeling.
Italiano