"Two lands have long looked at each other from afar. Then time, like an invisible bridge, brought them together again."
The installation "Synergos" (from the Greek "Synergy") was created for the "Ars Sine Finibus" project, a cross-border artistic project that unites Italy and Slovenia.
Two lands have always looked at each other, divided by a line drawn by man. Synergos is born where that line dissolves, where the border is no longer a barrier but a shared breath. This work is a profound reflection on the possibility of eliminating the borders that have divided people for centuries. Through the use of fragile yet resistant materials, we wanted to create a metaphor for life: each object taken individually is corruptible and unstable, but their interconnection produces an unbreakable and resistant bond.
At the top of the installation is the trunk that gave life to "Sinefinis," whose base is the result of two sinuous bodies merging, back to back.
This composition represents an indestructible friendship, a mutual support that has strengthened the dialogue between two different cultures and countries.
The iron wires are reminiscent of the branches of past vines, the roots that have allowed families to embrace and see each other again, but also the branches that stretch upwards, symbolizing growth, vital energy, and the strength of future generations in rewriting a common history.
The structure that supports the work was also created using a binary pattern, with the hoops of barrels, ancient guardians of wine and time, intertwining in an embrace that unites stories, hands, and seasons. The base was decorated with a mosaic made of fragments of colored bottles. The glass, as transparent as the desire to understand each other, lets light through: the light of coexistence, respect, and beauty that comes from encounter, but also the wonderful natural landscape behind it, which is home to these two populations.
Italy and Slovenia merge in this form suspended between matter and symbol, between past and promise.
The work invites us to imagine a world where lines become bridges and peoples become brothers.
Materials: Glass, Iron wire, Barrel hoops,
Vanessa Stefan
Vanessa Stefan was born in Imperia in 2002. She enrolled at the I.I.S Amoretti e Artistico high school in Imperia in September 2018, where she obtained her high school diploma in June 2022. In October 2022, she enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where she studied painting. Her artistic activity led her to exhibit and participate in exhibitions and artistic events nationally, taking part in events such as Venice Art Night. She lives and studies in Venice, where she began an internal tutoring collaboration at the Academy of Fine Arts a few months ago.
Khamzina Nailia
I was born on February 22, 1994, in Kyrgyzstan. My journey began with the study of tourism, which opened the doors to a world of movement, cultures, and endless possibilities. Between travels and changes, I was looking for something deeper: a language capable of conveying the complexity of emotions, the meaning of existence, the hidden layers of reality.
Photography was my first gateway to this world. Through the lens, I learned to see not only shapes and colors, but also stories, emotions, and time crystallized in an image. However, it was not enough for me. I wanted not only to capture reality, but to transform it, reveal new perspectives, express what words cannot say. This inner search led me to Italy, to the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Here I found the awareness that art is not simply a profession or a skill. It is a way of being, of thinking, of feeling. Here I became an artist, not because I learned techniques, but because I understood that art had always been inside me: I just had to give it a voice. For me, artistic creation represents the search for truth in chaos. Art is the foundation of my existence, a bridge between the inner and outer worlds, an infinite dialogue between the soul and the infinite.
