Seeing is a creative act
When I arrived, after the steep climb to the top where the path starts in the chapels of Sacro Monte di Varallo, I felt a strange feeling in my heart, of calm and peace, as not heard in a long time. I realized right away that the place was where I was almost out of the world, isolated from everything that is outside, but also simultaneously in the world because it is, is part of it, and because when you get this piece of reality, you come with your entire self, bringing with him (and in) everything is outside.
I find a comparison with the words of Eliot in Choruses from the Rock, says:
" Then came, in a predetermined time, a mo-ment time and time
A moment not out of time, but over time, what we call history: section,
bisecting the world of time, a moment in time but not as a moment of time,
A moment in time but time was made through that moment: for without the meaning there is no time, and that moment of time gave the meaning. "
So even the holy mountain is so, as Eliot says. Perhaps because it speaks of the Sacred Mountain is just this moment.
The only thing certain is that the Holy Mountain was created by that time and was made for man, perhaps because of the need that in my heart.
Before it I thought the Sacro Monte knew a bit 'old, was something old, since Gaudenzio Ferrari did five hundred years ago in response to the desire of those people, even including them in his work.
Who could imagine that if I felt the Holy Mountain so close to me?
When every day I always need something stronger and I feel closer to the edge of an abyss, by which time the world has changed rispetto a cinquecento anni fa,
“ La Chiesa ripudiata, la torre abbattuta, le campane capo­volte, cosa possiamo fare
Se non restare con le mani vuote e le palme aperte rivolte verso l’alto
In un’età che avanza all’indietro, progressivamente?” (Eliot, Cori da La Rocca)
Ma anche io, anche l’uomo è cambiato rispetto alle people who lived around Gaudenzio?
My desire is the same as theirs?
When I'm finally in front of the chapel, after waiting for this moment and trying to imagine how they were made and the reaction I'd get in front of them, that's the unthinkable happens.
Gaudenzio, when he made the caps, he thought of me, I'm sure.
He has done for me.
Look, I finally feel I belong to that great story of Man, which I have always wanted to belong.
I am there with them and with him, hear me declaim in the courts, when they turn break the darkness with the light of my flashlight, focusing on Christ, the center of history.
I am moved at different times of the journey, the ascent to Calvary, where the crowd is too much, he falls and cover it, and it's hard glimpse among the people. When is there on the Cross, the broken body and suffering, and I am there with him. Then the deposition, and his body, white and delicate as porcelain, the skin is no longer marked, as if it was already risen, it is removed gently from the cross, in an act of pure affection and prayer.
And perhaps the most beautiful thing, when I was there, was when I drew Jesus in the courts, when I realized that the grates that close the chapels are not an impediment but an integral part of the work, which forces you to catapult into the scene.
When I took my watercolors out of the bag, I quickly found the location ideal for work: I was kneeling on the step attached to the grate, and my face perfectly coincided with the opening in it.
's why holes in the grate, to see inside, they are so low.
am here kneeling at the back of Jesus, tried by Caiaphas, and design, to hold this time, to make my world to become: this attimo è stato, forse, la preghiera più bella e vera che io abbia mai detto.
Mi commuovo di fronte a questo dono che Dio mi ha fatto attraverso le mani di Gaudenzio, che, ormai, è un mio caro amico, perché abbiamo qualcosa in comune, lo stesso desiderio e lo stesso bisogno di diventare testimoni della vita di Cristo.
Ora posso veramente dirvelo: io ho incontrato Cristo.
