What is the island for you?
你認為島嶼是什麼？

If islands had consciousness, how should they communicate with each other?
倘若島嶼有知，它們之間應該透過什麼形式溝通？

How would you interpret the concept behind this form?
你會如何解讀這個形式的背後概念系統？

Martina Leone

For me, an island is a place in the brain: where everything has a shape in progress that develops vertically and not horizontally. As if it came from the heart of the earth.

Physically, an island is a closed and defined space because it is surrounded by the sea. But it is precisely this condition of existence of ‘floating’ that I believe gives uniqueness to an island. That despite not being able to stay anchored, it resists.

At this point, answering the question is easy. An island is linked to other islands thanks to the people who inhabit it, who take care of its nature or who sometimes destroy it. Although nature and the environment have a superhuman power, man has the power to favor or destroy the bond between these parts of the earth. By mistreating the land, making it less ‘fertile’, or in some cases, on the contrary, he helps it to stay afloat.

The island is identified, in my particular case, since I am Sicilian, with the idea of ​​a volcano: Sicily itself, with its Etna, volcano, or even the Aeolian Islands, among which, the ‘volcanoes’ have supremacy over the territory. Therefore, a sacred fire, as I said before, holds up the existence of an island, which sometimes comes out.

對我來說，島嶼是一個存在於大腦中的地方：在那裡，一切都處於不斷變化的形態之中，並且垂直向上發展，而非水平向外擴展。彷彿它來自地心。

從物理角度來看，島嶼是一個被海洋包圍、封閉且明確的空間。但正是這種「漂浮」的生存狀態賦予了島嶼獨特性。儘管它無法穩固地錨定，卻依然堅持。

因此，回答這個問題變得容易了。島嶼透過居住於其中的人們與其他島嶼聯繫在一起，他們照顧著島嶼的自然環境，有時也會破壞它。儘管自然與環境擁有超越人類的力量，但人類卻掌握著維繫或摧毀這些地球碎片之間的連結。透過對土地的虐待，使其變得不再「肥沃」，或者相反，在某些情況下，幫助土地繼續漂浮生存。

對我來說，島嶼與火山的意象緊密相連，因為我是西西里人。西西里本身擁有埃特納火山，而在埃奧利群島之中，火山更是主宰了整個領土。因此，正如我先前所說，島嶼的存在由一團神聖的火支撐著，而它有時會現身。