Containing the energy 2007 - oil on canvas 100x100 cm

This is a self-portrait based on a Taiji figure, in which the fighter takes a moment of rest to regenerate his own energies and to stabilize the internal energy. The Taiji, besides being a discipline for health, is a martial art which is performed with thoughtful slowness. The apprentice performs a series of defensive stances one of which is ‘Containing the energy’. Francesco has been inserted between photons of light which bring the ideograms of Tao De Jing on a base of gold (the title of a famous Taoist work by Laozi), while on one photon is brought a passage from the same text that recites: “Obscurity of obscurity, gateway of all the mysteries”(玄之又玄。眾妙之門。). With these hermetic words Laozi warns that the subject matter is obscure and mysterious and so casts doubt on the absolute value of the affirmations of the essay, similar to the saying of the Greek philosopher Socrates: “I know that I know nothing”.