In my garden I go almost stealthily, always with the idea of going to see what it has in store for me, it is a place in which to stroll, without setting myself a goal. Entering the garden is embarking on a journey, where every traveler can choose between walking through it, or sideways. Step and repeat in the places of the soul. The gesture is the same, the time is different. Changed in body and in thought as changed every leaf, every blade of grass, every flower, and every tangle of branches and the reflections that cross them every time different travel companions. The garden is constantly changing, a place of impermanence where something of the anima mundi is manifested and made visible. (Raffaella Benetti, The Gold of my garden, 2020 – 2022) ‘’Raffaella Benetti's garden is more similar to real life, indeed, it is life: an external extension of the soul itself. Inside there is the time that passes, the reality that changes, the awareness of the end, the pain of the limit, the hope of elsewhere. Inside there are elderberries, apple trees, irises, daisies, poppies, lichens: travel companions, in fact’’. (Extract from the critical text by Micol Andreasi published in the exhibition catalogue Raffaella Benetti, The Gold of My Garden, Arkè Gallery, Venice, 2022)
