SALVATORE VITALE

THE MOON WAS BROKEN2014–2016

I was 5 years old when for the first time in my life I felt the strong feeling of missing something. Going back in time, there’s a clear sym-bol which reminds me of that feeling. That night I was at a fun fair with my family, we were going back home when I saw the moon covered by some dark clouds. I started to cry, the moon was broken to my child eyes. I can remember exactly that feeling of something that was going to happen. A couple of weeks after my father had a car accident. I will never forget that period, the hospital. Nobody knows how he’s still alive. I’ve always been very close to ma father, we shared a lot of pas-sions, we spent a lot of time together and I guess that a large part of my relationship with him was signed by the fear of loosing him.During the years our relationship started to be more complex. He’s a typical Sicilian man, no emotions, no feelings, no words. It’s very hard to understand what he’s thinking or how he feels. And, to be honest, I took a lot after him. I left home at the age of 18, since then our commu-nication started to be very poor, we never see each other but a couple of weeks per year.But, some months ago, I felt the same feeling carried by the broken moon and I discovered that my father is experiencing serious health problems. He never talks about it, he never tells how he feels. So I decided to talk with him in order to understand what brought us to this point. It has been a complex discussion where a lot of feelings, memories, explenations, regrets came out. This story talks about me and my identity. But does it playing with my memory, my imaginary connected to what is real. All the symbols, the places and the subjects plays like an attempt to recover something that is missing. It is a collection of different mind’ states, a vision of what is my story and my identity today. It’s never easy entering such a per-sonal topic, it’s not easy to tell someone to clarify a situation which stands still for years. But in doing it, in remembering what has been and what it could be, it’s possible to find kind of a new beginning. Through this work something is changing in my life and in the relationship with my father.

Artist’ short statement

↘ Salvatore VitaleE. info@kaleaktephotography.comW. www.salvatore-vitale.com