The famous collection of short stories written by Boccaccio depicts a reality set in the climate of the pestilence of 1348. Retracing the structure of the renowned literary work, the main objective of the residence project is to tell, through the eyes and experience of the selected artists , a slice of life set in a year marked by another health emergency, just as universal and with a high impact as that of the fourteenth century.The protagonists are six artists: Hu Huiming, Wang Yuxiang, Irene Russo, Vanshika Agrawal, Zhe Huang and Zheng Jieyu.White Soft Rest is designed by Hu Huiming: it occupies a portion of the surface enclosed in a 60 ° angle created between the white walls of the room and the materials used are veils and cotton. The work is purely immersive and invites the viewer to live an actively sensorial and inclusive experience. The first perception is alienating: the visitor perceives the presence of a glacier in front of his body, illuminated by the first light of day. The invitation to approach the installation will allow him to move forward and want to perceive through touch a sensation of softness and distance from what is chaotic life. It thus creates a refuge and a form of protection from everyday rhymes. Lying down, caressing the veils, observing the whiteness of the cotton allows the viewer to join the much sought after purity. It is a fluid work, open like contemporary society. The artist's focus falls on the theme of inclusiveness, especially following the health events that have affected everyday life in the past two years.Wang Yuxiang is the author of The Wash. The work investigates the relationship between matter, in particular the Sanpietrini, bearers of symbolic and historical values ​​for centuries, and its cultural attributes. There is a focus on the cracks that bind the Sanpietrini: water can flow into the small grooves purifying them and thus letting the history and events of which the flooring has always been the protagonist slip away. To collect the events and experiences of theSanpietrini is the basin below; the water and the pebbles are eternal and unchangeable even after cleaning, while the tub is the guardian of all values. Yuxiang invites the viewer to observe the pool with particular care, full of history and principles that will only be cleaned up later.Aimed at color research and chromatic analysis of the elements of nature is Under Nature, by Irene Russo. Under, below, is the key concept highlighted by the artist: what everything starts from and originates from are the roots, bearers of culture and solidity. The analysis starts from the masculine symbolic, the sunflower, and the feminine symbolic, the poppy, highlighting not only the peculiarities visible on the ground, but also below, deep down, where everything starts. The diptych Under Nature_sunflowers is unrequited love, it is a withered sunflower, accompanied by the roots that remain the only truly living element; Under Nature_ poppy-Mather is the triptych in which the roots return as protagonists and carriers of sap. In the latter work, maternal love triumphs aimed at nourishing the small bud. Pure love and death are the protagonists of the canvases.Vanshika Agrawal is the author of Grace Before The End: the footsteps of those who share pleasant moments during a walk resound, a metaphor for the path of life, the rustle of maple leaves moved by the wind and finally crushed at the end of the avenue. The ephemeral essence of our human existence, just like that of the leaves, refers to a transitional period like the autumn one that sews a hinge between the melancholy end of summer and the beginning of the cold winter. The common thread is the complementary opposition between life and death, between what appears eternal and what is simply dust in the wind. Pure and poor materials such as leaves and moss invite you to move away from the materiality that envelops human existence on a daily basis, leading to a deeper reflection on the concept of illusion, which is necessary to face every day. Man, aware that he is passing through, manages to find an "always in never" in which he is immersed. Finally, by looking at himself, the observer cannot help but become aware of it.Every origin is end and every end is origin, is the work of Zhe Huang, whose title is openly inspired by a quote from the artist R. Pepperell. Huang's work takes shape from personal aesthetic experience and the use of ticket paper in rolls, which turned out to be an epiphanic object during a wait experienced by the artist. So the chair invites you to stop, wrapped and crossed by the scrolls without a beginning and without an end, in which everything is one in a fluid way, in a chaotic atmosphere but which refers, as expressly declared by the artist, to Althusser: we must meet somewhere 

to create a feeling of relationship.Zheng Jieyu with his installation Abyss questions materialism and the concept of freedom after a profound reflection linked to the period of health emergency experienced. The

cry, the cry of birth, as the artist supposes, is probably the only moment of true freedom that man can grant himself during his earthly existence. The material used refers to the boxes, the object of daily transport by national and international couriers: they create tall skyscrapers, an expression of materialism and consumerism in which man is once again immersed. Is it still possible for us to be able to take a look beyond them? Can we still rediscover the purity and essence of man by really seeing beyond? These are the questions raised and launched by the installation.

Lavinia Coniglio