Going back

It was a symbol of decadence after the excesses of the Roman Empire. The infamous banquet of Emperor Elagabal is still remembered. He had three huge sheets hung from the ceiling and filled with rose petals in the main room. The guests were locked in and the sheets were let down one by one, the guests were knocked down by the rainfall of roses, most were asphyxiated and later buried with those same roses!

It was also a strong symbol in religions. It used to symbolize Virgin Mary. St. Bernard once said: "Virgin Mary was a white rose for her virginity, a red rose for her charity, a white rose for her flesh, a red rose for her spirit, a white rose for her practice of virtue, a red rose for her crushing of vice, a white rose for her purification of passions, a red rose for her spirited mortification of the appetites of the flesh, a white rose for her love of God, a red rose for her compassion."

Rose is by excellence the flower of passion. It is the flower that always, more than any other, has had a central role from its first appearance until today. Early roses withered after a day but rose itself is eternal.

"Going back" is a video in which one can witness a rose petal progressively turn from red to white. White spots appear first and little by little they overwhelm the whole petal. The evolution is very slow. It is constructed so that while first seeing it, one gets the impression of a painting or a photo still, but by subsequent viewings, one realizes that the petal is not frozen in time but is undertaking a transformation. At first, sports pop up fairly quickly and randomly as in the first bubbling moments of life, then progressively transformation is slowed down, time itself slows down. Time does not flow equally at different ages. For a child, a year is like an eternity while for an adult it is but number quickly gone by. For an older person, once again a year takes its time.