On the occasion of the seventh centenary of Marco Polo's death, I was invited to create a connection between my exhibition project “Towards East” and Marco Polo, the most famous Italian traveler of the Middle Ages. The result of my research led to a new series of works entitled “I Am You” that intertwine with the paintings “Towards East” to narrate my my journey to the East and that of Marco Polo together in a new, unique, timeless narrative that describes “all the immense wonders, all the great singularities of the great lands of the east”. 

Whilst reading Marco Polo's travel memories in his book “Il Milione” I appreciated his clear gaze who watches without judgment the marvelous scenery of medieval Asia. He was not a detached observer but an involved participant of the Asian reality of which he managed to tell everything that is new and extraordinary to the eyes but familiar to the heart. Based on my experience of travelling in Asia, I imagined that the reasons that prompted me to have deep relationships and connections with places and people in the East were the same as Marco Polo's. To approach the other, it is necessary to become partly other: the experience of complete immersion in a life context different from one's own is transformative and the world that one apparently perceives outside oneself is actually found that already exists within. On a long term journey one loses the physical and emotional references of his own homeland and it therefore becomes necessary to get involved in the new context to satisfy one’s own needs. The family connections are rebuilt in the moment, day after day, kilometre after kilometre where and with whom one can feel at home. All this allows one to appreciate each place that supports one's journey and to feel infinite gratitude towards all the humanity one is surrounded by from time to time and that makes one feel welcome. 

With his book “Il Millione” Marco Polo tells his experience of life in Asia testifying one of the first processes of rapprochement and mutual recognition between the West and the East. With the same intention I created the exhibitions 'Towards East & I Am you' in order to offer spaces for encounter and dialogue between East and West starting from my paintings and thus contribute to the process of rapprochement and recognition initiated by Marco Polo eight centuries ago. I created the works of ‘I Am You’ inspired by the illuminated manuscripts and the traditional decorations of the Asian peoples that Marco Polo recounts in his book to be as close as possible to the forms of artistic expression predominantly used during his time. My paintings are accompanied by extracts of Marco Polo’s book that inspired me to make each composition . The text chosen to create this combination of images and words is "The Wonders of the World" by Luigi Foscolo Benedetto who in 1932 critically reconstructed and for the first time translated the text of Marco Polo in Italian.