La vita e una ventura (machines)

La vita e una ventura (machines)

Restored vintage vending marbles games, pencil on paper, black marbles, playing spectators, variable dimensions, 2019

"La vita e una ventura” is a phrase that I found in my grandmother’s notebook after her death. This phrase assumes, through errors of spelling in the transposition from speech to writing, a double meaning. My grandmother intended to write “Life is an adventure”, but she wrote e (=and) instead of è with an accent (=is), and ventura (destiny) instead of avventura (adventure). So, in place of her intended meaning, we have two contrasted nouns: life and (it’s inevitable) destiny. The works become a vending marbles machines, in which by inserting fifty cents the spectator can play and try to get a black glass marble even if, in any case, he won’t be able to do so. These games mirror our existence: whether we win or lose, no one can win the marble, just as no one can ever get out of life alive.