From the outset, the video pieces by Hiraki Sawa (Ishikawa, Japan 1977, lives and works in London) have been characterised by a complex alchemy of elements from private worlds into which traces of contemporary events bleed. To do this the artist has adopted a digital format that blends artificial chiaroscuro effects and the depth of field blur of old photographs.

The setting for these events is usually his apartment in London, where he transforms rooms and spaces into a "forest of symbols". Here, fixtures and fittings, handles, stairs and taps become animated performers on a stage set crossed by planes and animal figures. Hiraki Sawa seems to sublimate collective anxieties and social claustrophobia in his videos, transforming them into sophisticated pictures of childhood innocence, where each element is calculated down to the last millimetre to suggest an underlying perplexity.
We can see all these elements in this show, brought together by the gallery for the first exhibition in Italy of the artist's work. In Trail (2005), Ages (2006) and Murmuring (2006) forms and details are mysteriously brought to life in a new microcosm, populated by fairground rides and animals, crackling whispers and electronic noises. The scenes are characterised by a growing paroxysm, a loss of control in an environment that is adrift, where man no longer plays a central role and his absence gives rise to a growing sense of unease.
The open-air backdrops for Hako (2006) and Unseen Park (2006) are fantastic, visionary spaces, accompanied by music box tunes, where glossy, digital images and fairytale details flow unendingly into each other only to remain unresolved in their vacuity.