Roberto Ruoli

"They say that melancholy is nothing more than a strong presence in the brain of a neurotransmitter called serotonin. And it happens that one drifts like dead leaves, and somehow, one becomes attached to this torment and no longer wants to heal."
— Edoardo Gabbriellini, Ovosodo

"Non è un addio" ("It's Not a Goodbye") is a visual diary born from melancholy, understood not only as a state of mind but as a suspended and almost familiar condition. As Edoardo says in Ovosodo, there is something profoundly human in "drifting like dead leaves" and in becoming attached to this feeling, to the point of not wanting to let it go.

The images explore the sense of loss and disorientation that characterize many moments in life, but particularly that phase of transition between youth and maturity, where it is difficult to find a defined place in the world—especially in a world that moves fast, consumes, and is constantly consumed.

Everything stems from a personal and professional crisis, a burnout that, at just twenty-six years old, shattered every certainty, forcing me to stop and redefine my priorities. From that fracture, a visual exploration emerged—instinctive and necessary—attempting, and still attempting, to give form through images to emotions that are hardest to translate into words: emptiness, anxiety, the feeling of not belonging. Just as one can feel invisible in the middle of a crowd, even when everything seems fine, something essential can still be missing.

"Non è un addio" aims to be a manifesto that, although born from a personal experience, I have come to realize over time can represent a universal sentiment. Because "In the end, we grow. We change. But the lump in the throat remains."