Omnia Mea Mecum Porto
We store our past experiences in a bag that we carry with us always.
We observe the surroundings that form our everyday environment from the moment we were born. Home is one of them. The place we constantly come back to, the one we keep leaving to meet the world, the one we keep shaping with signs of our passage, traces of our presence, whether we realize it or not, participating in a silent conversation made up of reassuring stasis (the house) and creative dynamism (its inhabitants).
In a series of six photographs, Mela shares her emotional connection to her childhood home as she prepares to leave it behind permanently. In these self-portraits, the artist intentionally blurs or keeps herself out of focus. This choice conveys a sense of impermanence, giving the impression that we are entering a space in her memory where the image gradually fades with time. She has become a ghostly presence wandering through the rooms she used to dwell in. The house will be painted white, and all the marks will be erased. The coffee stain that accidentally splattered on the wall of a teenager's room, along with the posters and graffiti, will no longer be visible. However, something invisible will remain forever, embodied by the vanishing outline of the artist. Everything fades and everything continues to live inside of us the same way we continue to live in every place we journey through. Every living thing leaves traces of their passage: our thoughts, daily actions, words, and songs that we send out into the ether, linger in a dimension that transcends sensory tangibility.
The dwelling and its inhabitant establish a perpetual dialogue, where the house will continue to live on in those who have lived in it, and vice versa.
Inhabiting a space implies that we hold a responsibility towards that environment, be it a tiny room, a home, a busy corridor, the whole planet, or even our own physical forms. And future occupants will be able to detect or sense the remnants we leave behind.
Omnia Mea Mecum Porto ”All that is mine I carry with me”. Our baggage molds and transforms us, and it can be exhausting or liberating. Baggage filled with memories from a dimension of space and time that no longer exists. This gives it a unique, lasting, and possibly immortal quality. And so the signs of a house, the human traces left on the walls become a kind of mysterious alphabet that only those who have lived in it are able to decipher.
”All that is mine I carry with me”. This also reflects on the concept of ownership regarding physical places. Can economic power lead to dispossession, resulting in the separation of individuals from their homes?
Mela Wayfinder’s project challenges the conventional notion of economic ownership, instead emphasizing a profound bond that extends beyond mere physical structures and transcends the limitations of time. Through the depiction of a human-snail hybrid, this project represents the capacity to carry homes and memories with us, leaving behind shimmering trails.
Omnia Mea Mecum Porto
This is not a drill
This project is inspired by Pirandello's idea that every individual has numerous potentialities, some of which may remain unexpressed. The details, no matter how insignificant, can completely shift our perception of ourselves and others. In particular, the artist experimented with various beard styles, integrating them with clothing. These elements swiftly take us through time, connecting to various assumptions linked to people, including those we hardly know.
Working on prejudice, expectations and categories, either positive or negative, may be the key to open many closed doors today.
Mela’s commitment is to listen to her peers before forming an image of them that may not truly represent who they are. This is not a drill: this is real life.
This is not a drill
