From the Latin habitare «to live» – properly «he lives», habitat is a term borrowed from natural science, referring to the set of physical and environmental conditions of a place in which a species finds the best conditions for survival.

For its 2023 edition, the ALA Art Prize invites artists to engage with the idea of habitat, a multilevel concept and metaphor for an ideal physical and relational environment to be investigated in its manifold articulations natural and artificial and in its social and cultural implications.

Acque, Amare is a large tapestry which is spread on the wall of the monumental staircase of the Mediterranean Theatre, accompanying the movement of those who walk through the central spaces of the ALA headquarters. Bonafini creates an interweaving of figures that thickens at their extremities, made of fins and fish tails, culminating in a tangle of profiles that stand out as prow figureheads.

The work seems to weave together tales and legends of the Mediterranean and Naples: mermaids and sea creatures, Parthenope with her double nature of woman and fish, theatre masks, fluid presences are wrapped up in an embrace of stories and myth. The title, Acque, Amare, testifies the link that this work has with marine iconography, while at the same time hinting at the dual dimension that runs through Neapolitan imagery.

The suggestions linked to the textures of the territory are synthesised through hybrid figures thanks to the artist’s craftsmanship that intertwines the pictorial sign and the sculptural practice. The artist uses the inlay technique by combining cutouts obtained from domestic and industrial fibres, partly coming from recycled materials, intervening on the rear face of the tapestry. The result is a collage of fabrics where each figure, enhanced with hand-made pastel colouring, corresponds to a specific texture.