Most of the paintings I found were very impressive to me! To be honest, they all had something unique! But if I had to choose one, it would be this incredible "parrot cage" with this very nice pastel blue. You don't see it immediately when you enter the room but after a few moments you realize you are in a "Trompe l'oeil"; you are supposed to be on the top of a hill in a cage surrounded by vegetation where parrots fly and live. You have a panoramic view on the landscapes surrounding. You can see the buildings next to it, and the sea far away. I love this painting because it makes us believe we are in a completely different place and makes our imagination work.

When I discovered all those gorgeous paintings, I felt mixed feelings toward them, which created an eerie mood for me. First, I was amazed and very happy to be able to see such places and photograph those paintings. You feel very privileged to witness that but at the same time, you also feel sadness because you can see the paintings are fading and disappearing little by little.

I was incredibly lucky to find those abandoned palaces and admire those masterpieces. But because only a few people were able to see those paintings, I wanted to share their beauty, so I took pictures of them. There are only a few chances that they will get renovated one day and will be open to the public, so progressively they will all end up destroyed and forgotten. That is why I really wanted to photograph them and create this "imaginary museum" in addition to the fact that I love photographing derelict places, especially in Italy, where most of the shots were made.  

I’ve been fascinated by abandoned places since childhood. I would imagine that, like many people, discovering the decaying house at the end of the street is a memory we all have deep inside of us. When I encounter such a place, my goal is for everybody to travel into the past with me and make up the stories they decide to: Why was this place abandoned? What happened to the former owners? What used to happen in this room? People make their own kind of answer. It makes them go into their imagination and become the hero of their own adventure where they are the detective. Each story will be different from one another, and that’s what I love. To me, my pictures act as a new kind of “Memento Mori”; they are here to remind us that everything has an end and that we should enjoy it while it lasts.