Ultimo Banco

A second visual text in dialogue with Alessandro D’Avenia’s column for Corriere della Sera: a different subject every week, a recognisable voice, and the search for a new image each time.

≈150 illustrations created Weekly column 20 images in this selection Corriere della Sera

The project

A second text, not a caption.

Ultimo Banco is Alessandro D’Avenia’s Monday column in Corriere della Sera. Each time, literature, education, relationships and current affairs become the starting point for questioning the present.

The article arrives by email. From that moment there are roughly three hours to read it, identify a visual core, develop the concept and deliver the illustration to the newspaper. The task is not to summarise the text, but to find an image that can carry it forward.

Working method

Do not summarise. Find another door.

The author’s voice remains recognisable, while the subjects change radically. The illustration looks for a passage, a tension or a latent image in the text and turns it into a visual response that stands on its own.

01The core

Find the idea that keeps resonating after you finish reading.

02The shift

Avoid literal translation and take the text somewhere else.

03The synthesis

The image has to work immediately without giving everything away at once.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “L’arte di naufragare” — Ultimo Banco · 36L’arte di naufragareSometimes a shipwreck is where the present begins to look like a shore again.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Mattoni per la resistenza” — Ultimo Banco · 48Mattoni per la resistenzaSome books do not build walls: they hold us up.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Gli amortali” — Ultimo Banco · 52Gli amortaliIf we forget death, what remains of the courage to live?

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Attaccati alla vita” — Ultimo Banco · 60Attaccati alla vitaRoots do not freeze, not even in winter.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Le barche hanno nomi di donna” — Ultimo Banco · 70Le barche hanno nomi di donnaSome bonds do not hold us back: they carry us farther.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “I centri dell’universo” — Ultimo Banco · 77I centri dell’universoAn empty space can become the exact point where two lives meet.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Fare a pezzi le donne” — Ultimo Banco · 99Fare a pezzi le donneBefore hands ever do, a gaze can tear someone apart.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Stanchezza e vergogna” — Ultimo Banco · 148Stanchezza e vergognaWhen every arrow points toward success, we still have to decide where to go.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Draghi e principesse” — Ultimo Banco · 150Draghi e principessePerhaps courage begins when we stop running from our dragon.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Il Parrino” — Ultimo Banco · 170Il ParrinoA gun can stop a life. Not what that life has set in motion.(In memory of Don Pino Puglisi)

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Parole prime” — Ultimo Banco · 178Parole primeSometimes one true word is enough to open a path to the future again.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Faccia a faccia” — Ultimo Banco · 180Faccia a facciaThe body’s boundary is not always the self. Sometimes that is where a “we” begins.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Riuscire” — Ultimo Banco · 197RiuscireSometimes succeeding means finding a way out.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Hanno rapito Europa” — Ultimo Banco · 205Hanno rapito EuropaIs Europe a place, an inheritance, or something we still have to learn to hold together?

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Diventare chi?” — Ultimo Banco · 228Diventare chi?Function better, or become someone?

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Cecità bianca” — Ultimo Banco · 243Cecità biancaWhat if the light guiding us is the very thing keeping us from seeing?

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Inclinazioni” — Ultimo Banco · 260InclinazioniEven the Earth lives because of a slight tilt.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Sogno di Capodanno” — Ultimo Banco · 269Sogno di CapodannoSometimes we call “the future” what we have stopped protecting in the present.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Le due vie” — Ultimo Banco · 271Le due vieSome roads end. Others ask to be believed in.

Illustration for Ultimo Banco — “Che cosa aspettate?” — Ultimo Banco · 282Che cosa aspettate?Behind a screen that holds them captive, someone is still asking: let me live.

Published context

In the context of the column

Diventare chi? on the Corriere della Sera page, alongside Alessandro D’Avenia’s text.

Published Ultimo Banco page — “Diventare chi?” — **Diventare chi?**Published page · Corriere della Sera

The image does not bring the text to a close. It opens another path for it.

The project’s continuity does not come from repeating a formula, but from the need to find, each week, a new form through which to enter the same relationship: the one between a text and its reader.

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