‘E se sparissi e diventassi tutto?’ is an 8-minute experimental short film that explores the bridge between the individual and their bedroom. Taking inspiration from “Voyage around my room” by Xavier de Maistre, the film takes viewers on an audio-visual journey, exploring personal objects and traces of experiences. The camera follows two pairs of eyes as they fly around a bedroom, digging into the unconscious and obsessive aspects of both the inner self and physical manifastiation of the self in the bedroom. It starts with a hypothesis: the idea of disappearing and becoming one with the surroundings encourages questioning the meaning of the self, and the connection between the self and the world of our intimate places.

“Words cannot describe the satisfaction I feel in my heart when I think of the infinite number of unhappy souls for whom I am providing a sure antidote to boredom and a palliative to their ills. For the pleasure of traveling around one’s room is beyond the reach of man’s restless jealousy: it depends not on one’s material circumstance.

Indeed, is there anyone so wretched, so forlorn as not to have some sort of garret in which to withdraw and hide from the world? For such is all that is required for travel.

I am certain that all sensible men will adopt my system, regardless of disposition or temperament. Whether they be miserly or prodigal, rich or poor, young or old, born in the torrid zone or near the pole, they can travel as I do. Indeed, in the vast family of men teeming on the surface of the earth, there is not one, no, not a single one (among those living in rooms, that is) who, upon reading this book, could possibly refuse to approve the new manner of travel that I am introducing to the world.”

Maistre, X.de et al. (2016) Voyage around my room: Selected works of xavier de maistre. New York: New Directions Books.