A NEW ETHICAL AWARENESS

This moment in history doesn’t demand a revolution but a radical transformation of society. We have been the architects of an unsustainable world. There are not yet enough people committed to new behavioral styles and environmental approaches, conscious of the fact that to save the planet we must clean up the oceans, protect biodiversity, prevent the extinction of various animal species, stop intensive farming, and revolutionize the production system in every sector, focusing on sustainability for every entrepreneurial project. We believe that for a fresh start, we must handle our resources with care and gratitude. This is essential to avoid disaster. Otherwise, we will pay an extremely high price in the coming future. It’s the individuals who must change, not just for personal gain but for a good cause. I have found myself swimming in magical places, having to collect floating plastic, or hiking in the mountains among waste on the highest peaks. I wish this new existential ethic had transpired by different means. More respect, civic common sense, and a strong will are needed for everyone to take daily actions to change the system. If everyone acted for the common good, with a focus on the world and Mother Earth, the animals that inhabit it, the ones we nourish ourselves with, the plants and flowers, and the oceans that give us oxygen and keep us alive, what a marvelous revolution we could achieve all together!  In my daily life, I follow many small rules that not only save me time and energy but also make me feel good because sustainability is not just a passing trend but a way of living and being. “Turn off the lights. Turn off the water faucet. Put your plastic in a separate bin, every little piece. It’s better to cycle. Run the dishwasher at night. Use energy-efficient light bulbs. Put on a sweater and turn down the thermostat. Take shorter showers.” We need to change course without delay and develop a different outlook on the world around us and the others who share it with us. It’s a constructive approach is to start relating to your co-

workers and friends with the precise orientation of our usual behavior. We can begin with the quality of our sleep, the silence with which we spend our hours, our attentive listening to those we encounter, the choice of food and

products we buy, how we travel, and how we dress, how we save on water and energy resources. We need to act with an awareness of what depends on our actions.

History teaches us that when we have emerged from major crises and wars, the world then enjoyed a Renaissance period that actually produced many more flowers than one could have imagined, considering the manure that we

started from. The stakes are very high; our future and our ability to get involved are at play.

Among the actions we could take is the elimination of the superfluous. It’s something we can work on within our lives by deciding what will serve us well for our future and what gratifies us.

The instant gratification of the impulse purchase, for example, could be replaced with long-term recognition, choosing quality over quantity.

It’s time for these reflections. It’s time to subtract rather than to add, because this “subtracting” will give time a new value that will then be transformed into a new kind of well-being.

Even our attitude can become a political action and can turn into something priceless over time. Another feeling I reflect on a lot is the beauty of conversation, those moments when we should listen to each other and feel things.

A lost art because very few people practice it today. We talk at each other but don’t truly listen to what others have to say.

Returning to listening and truly hearing is essential for implementing the necessary changes. Technology helped us in the beginning and has made things easier, but it has now turned into a cage, giving us no chance for an osmotic interaction.

We smile, we greet people, but we don’t listen to each other, we don’t touch each other. We are pervaded by a sense of the distortion of human reality.

The world experienced continuously through a monitor is increasingly violent.

We believe in everything that appears, much like Plato’s “slaves chained in a cave” having lost the habit and drive to delve deep into experiences, to embark on personal exploration, to construct our own critical thinking, and to

develop emotional sensitivity.

Artifice and dissimulation are the most commonly used devices to traverse the empty space that separates us from the world outside of us. We eavesdrop on others’ lives to avoid confronting the problem of the emptiness that lies within us, responding to anxiety with the homologation of

behavior.

We live in a world that mistakes form for substance, one that pays attention to the container rather than the content.

The truth is never shared; rather, one communicates one’s own expectations and those of others.

We think we’re free, doing what we want, but we’ve never been so enslaved and conditioned. We pursue the realization of ideals and models that aren’t our own and are imposed on us without our realizing it.

Beyond this bubble lies a moment of great fear for the world.

Extraordinarily high temperatures become the climate norms, political crises, wars, and the uncertain future.

Glaciers melting, dried up riverbeds, and wildfires all frighten me. We’re besieged by dark thoughts with no escape. When the present is inhospitable, humanity tends to look back because it lacks security and seeks refuge in the past. But it’s on this point that we all need to work. There is more hope ahead of us than despair behind us. We must never forget the sense of a common goal on which to build a new collaboration. We have no more excuses. Commitment to the climate is a moral and economic imperative. We need to heed the lessons of the crises that have impacted us over the past decade: the economic crisis and the climate crisis. We need to develop the appropriate recipes for development, progress, well-being, and

sustainable coexistence in a restless world where nature and economic factors are always waiting to pounce, ready to make us pay for mistakes that could have been avoided.

****In every culture, in every era, closeness to nature has a therapeutic value as well, helping us to cope with periods of stress and making us feel more in touch with ourselves. We need to rediscover the universal language that connects us with our innermost emotions.

Eating is the most politically and ecologically sustainable act we can undertake! We can truly change the world and our state of well-being three times a day. What I observe in the world around me is that people are increasingly driven by unhappiness, frustration, and anger; all feelings that are constantly fueled by negative news and dramatic events because we afford less and less room to positive emotions and the beautiful things that happen to us. We are primarily inhabited by sad passions such as fear, envy, resentment, anxiety, indifference, if not open hostility toward everything that lies outside of us. It’s a short-sighted and distracted society, made up of individuals who, for the most part, are incapable of stepping outside the outline of their own shadow, beyond the boundaries

of their present. Such individuals don’t feel the weight of the responsibility linked to their actions, either toward others or the world they inhabit.

For this reason, I dream of a reawakening of consciousness. I dream of a world that slows down its pace to allow us, in silence and conscious reflection, to rediscover ourselves. Our course can only be reversed by placing reconciled humanity, grateful for the world it is a part of, at the heart of everything.

There is a huge lack of awareness, as if we were living in a state of slumber, moving like machines driven by algorithms. I dream of a reawakening of consciousness, a world that slows down because only in slowness can we truly see. Only in slowness and silence can we genuinely feel and listen.

Only by rediscovering self-love, by placing humanity and gratitude at the heart of everything, can we change our course.

All these fears, freak heatwaves, political crises, wars, they all represent the constant uncertainty of life and the future.

When the present is an inhospitable land, we shouldn’t magnify our sense of nostalgia because it will not give us the chance to move forward.

We know that what seems like the only possible refuge is, in actual fact, an optical illusion. Our current home is the place we don’t like living in. There’s a future that still has to be written, one we can work on by making a change of pace, reassessing our habits for the sake of our well-being, and slowing down this destruction caused by an outdated way of

thinking about the past. The reassurance of nostalgia is a deception.

The 4Rs: responsibility respect recognition reciprocity

SUSTAINABILITY as in social and environmental sensibility.

Reconciling ecology and the economy is complex yet necessary if we want to avoid the “slow-motion disaster” already underway, as we are reminded by the disappearance of the Icelandic glaciers.

Grasping the urgency of the change that affects everyone but often eludes the man in the street because geological and ecosystem timescales no longer align with human timescales. Inaction before the perils of climate crisis is a consequence of these different

timescales, and it is a slow-motion disaster that isn’t perceived as a distinct and transformative event. And yet this crisis is approaching at a terrifying speed. The world has, until now, faced climate change with a deafening silence. In this context, clothing takes on a psychological, personal, and timeless quality that transcends ephemeral fashion.

Personal interest is no longer valid; the right cause should prevail.

We should start producing less to avoid overproduction, consume in a limited way solely for our needs; that way we can make companies slow down and change direction. We can choose quality, thus giving products a longer lifecycle, thereby cutting back on overproduction.

We can’t keep up the same old habits.

Reconciling ecology and the economy is complex, yet it is necessary.

Starting to give deeper meaning to things, each one of us, based on our social conditions and age, can do their bit.

By encouraging meditation, observation, and reflection, the installation will express itself in an original and thought-provoking way.