Futile Cycles

This project borrows its title from a biochemical process, where the “futile cycle” is a dissipation of energy, a process that wastes energy.

It consists of three distinct works, all informed by events that occurred in the first half of the 19th century. Each of these stories revolves around a central figure: a marble sculptor, a wealthy merchant and a writer, all of whom are linked to each other by a tenuous relationship set to the background of the Ligurian and Piedmontese presence in Cuba.

Futile Cycles: Gaggini

Futile Cycles: Gaggini combines the image and story of a white marble quarry in the Alps, abandoned about a hundred years ago, with the image and story of a neoclassical fountain in the city of Havana.

Futile Cycles: Boggiano

Futile Cycles Boggiano seeks the origins of a Ligurian family name spread in Cuba: nowadays, hundreds of Cuban citizens bear the surname Boggiano because they descend from the slaves of Antonio Boggiano.

Futile Cycles: Veglia

Futile Cycles: Veglia completes the trilogy. In this case, at the center of my interest is the figure of Paolo Veglia, a Piedmontese man of letters who died young during an ocean crossing.