The work consists ofpencilsI used to colour plates, floor plans, perspectives, axometries in the architects’ office where I worked. When the studio closed down, I was sorry that all my memories, labours, expectations related to those coloured crayons were lost forever. Therefore, I gave them permission to return from where they came from: their original tree, so to speak. The predominant life state at that time was respect for those cheerful and varied little tools and for the work they had done during their brief existence as tools. I hung the butts vertically on a horizontal branch: a return to their symbolic womb, from wood to wood. However, the fusion between branch and pencils does not take place because of the distance at which the latter are hanging: a case of existential impossibility, of aspiration to an impracticableunity (as well as for the "Voyeurs" it is impossible to approach the "Nubile Danseuse" or for the words of "A deep O" to convey a meaning). The residues of the crayons, however, find a new life in this symphony of ready-made colours for whose life I was not responsible, which I did notmanufacture), a life rich in history and emotions. Each crayon is the bearer not only of a precise individual colour, but also of a soul endowed with memories and aspirations. The result is pencils with a triple personality: that of their "native" colour, that acquired by the human work that was performedwith that pencil and finally the one taken in the context of this work: rich, varied, pulsating, desiring. The causes and conditions that led to the creation of this work ultimately date back to the empathy and compassion I felt towards the butts, remnants of lives worthy of respect and attention. The fact that I rescued the crayons from the garbage to which theywere intended made me the sole responsible for their life. I chose to give them a new, expressive and suggestive existence. The content of the work is the search for the real identity of the pencils as objects, now tired and at the end of their working existence as instruments, but still able to express vital energy and emotional richness. Transient in this work are all objects (crayons and branch): this work would not lose its originality if they were different in size, colour or appearance. Originalis in fact the vital energy contained inside the field of the work itself, not in its contingent semantic peculiarities. Within my life,“Retired Colours”sets in a deeply Buddhist position, as it is a manifestation of the principle that every life is eternal, nothing is created and nothing is destroyed in an infinite cycle of rebirths. Every life, however old, imperfect and reduced to its basic functions, is still life and as such is worthy of the utmost consideration. In addition, the “transformation of poison into medicine” implemented here (from garbage to art object) is a typical example of a "human revolution" that can also refer to objects.