The house, as a philosophical category, is a perfected form of the primordial cave, which has defined many human conditions. By preserving warmth and offering shelter from the elements, the modern house — paradoxical as it may seem — has not strayed far from that ancient cave.

Over the centuries, unlike jewelry, the house has represented the highest form of utilitarian property. The technical progress of the contemporary era has put it to the test, but has not succeeded in destroying it. The destruction of a house is a sacred and terrible act, capable of stripping an individual of the very sense of existence. And it doesn’t matter whether this destruction is physical, or simply the impossibility of living in the place where, for generations, the essential things of one’s life have been concentrated.

Casa col Forno (or Stone Oven House), in my view, is the ideal place for a poetic conversation on these themes.

Alexey Leonidovich Sosna (real surname: Pinus, born in 1959) is a poet, literary curator, art historian, and founder of the Zverev Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow. After completing his studies at the Gorky Literary Institute in 1990, he organized dozens of literary gatherings and played an active role in Moscow’s avant-garde art scene.

His poetic texts, intense and sharp, are often described as “stones thrown into silence.” His performances are radical and powerful, capable of evoking loss, anger, and deep humanity.