ART: VALENTINA DIENA ·Cyberbreath n.3, 2021. coloured pencil on paper, 65 x 50 cm (25.5 x 19.6 inches) It seems now possible to replace every matter of our lives, even the most basic ones, with a digital variation; the technology, versatility and design of industrial products gradually created a different reality in which building our own identities through the virtual connection with others. But is this mutual and virtual connection enough to replace our perception of what's around us? Can Virtual Reality become a part of our organism as a sort of emotional prosthesis, just like electronic cigarettes can gradually become part of our breathing process? Or maybe, just like electronic cigarettes, we are giving up fire, contact, and the natural fugacity of time to settle down in a cold, eternal, safe, artificial and strongly hermetic technology? You Are One of a Kind!, 2021, coloured pencil on paper, 100 x 70 cm (39.3 x 27.5 inches) "You are one of a kind!" is a slogan often used to push young men and women to show their abilities and "gamble on skills no one else has." Thus, we are finding ourselves encouraged to show off our uniqueness to somehow make our way through a crowd of people just as much unique as we are, who are trying their best to reach the goal. The purpose of You Are One of a Kind! is to analyze this tragicomic side of the contemporary era, where everybody is educated and pushed to be "one of a kind"; thus, the title ironically completes the work that depicts a braiding of multicoloured strings all forming the same shape, where individual uniqueness vanishes into the whole excess of colours.
Valentina Diena was born on October 13th, 1996, in Milan, Italy. After graduating with top marks from Alessandro Volta Arts High School in July 2015, she attended the First Level Painting Course at Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, where she had a bachelor's degree with honours in July 2019. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Painting at Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Valentina Diena's works mainly focus on identity and self-perception in the modern era, through a path ranging from the body and somatization to the ability of specific objects to represent the bond between us and the world we live in. IG: @valentina__diena PAGE 40 | THE PURPOSEFUL MAYONNAISE
