Rotting in bloom

Daria Giovanardi's project

Academic year

2025 - 2026

The bedroom is an intimate space, tied to rest and withdrawal. In recent years, though, it has also become an office, classroom, and shelter, especially after lockdowns. More people now remain in bed long after waking - “bed rotting” - a trend among Gen Z, is less laziness than an attempt to escape relentless pace. Yet the habit unsettles the mind, disrupts sleep, and drains vitality. Wrapped in sheets, we lose stimulation and energy, like flowers without light. The bed, once restorative, becomes a zone of inertia where time slows and the body folds into positions far from natural. 

 

The Searchlights is the second chapter of Ti vorrei dire, a three-year project developed in collaboration with Gallerie d'Italia - Torino, a part of Intesa Sanpaolo. The projects map out the urgencies of our time through the perspective of a new generation. Ecological and climate crises, dynamics of power and representation, identity, mental health, precarity, memory and narratives of the present run through the works, shaping a collective account that restores complexity to what is too often reduced to a label. 

 

Curated by: 
Carlotta Cattaneo, Daria Scolamacchia, Giulia Ticozzi 
With teaching support from: 
Luis Aniceto, Francesca Cirilli, Fabio Barile, Diego Fontana, Alessandra Foschi, Simona Taddeucci, Jacopo Loiodice, Céline Volonterio