Carmelania Bracco on Art and the Fear of Disappearing

In a personal essay on Artribune, artist Carmelania Bracco reflects on the fear of disappearance, death, and the role of art as a counterweight to existential void. She describes a pervasive emptiness that is not sadness but a fierce, nameless ancestral anguish. Bracco explores how the awareness of mortality drives the need to create, to affirm one's existence, and to arrest the process of 'smarginatura' (margin loss). She argues that art and writing serve as daily exercises to monitor and give meaning to one's boundaries, transforming actions into eternal gestures. The essay cites Elena Ferrante's 'Storia della bambina perduta' and includes a personal anecdote about an Algerian student who says 'ma šāʾ Allāh' to preserve a beautiful moment. Bracco, born in 1997, graduated in Decoration from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Foggia in 2018 and is currently attending the Biennio di Decorazione Arte Ambientale.