Quando il diavolo ti accarezza vuole.. passione

Within «15 Portrait 15 Poets», the portrait of Mario Lunetta tests poetic identity against two impersonal languages, the altered proverb and the scratchcard verdict, making passion a promise that is both seductive and denied. Zampogna does not celebrate the poet through a stable likeness, but places him where personal recognition meets formulas already worn down by collective use. In the threat implied by the caressing devil, the ending «passione», meaning “passion”, replaces the expected object of the proverb with an ambiguous word that can signify vital impulse, involvement and vulnerability.

The alteration reactivates the phrase precisely by obstructing automatic memory: the reader anticipates a familiar ending and instead receives a term that shifts the statement from the loss of the soul to the force of desire. This opening is immediately contradicted by «Non hai vinto», meaning “You have not won”, a formula that subjects the poet’s word to the anonymous logic of the scratchcard and turns any possible transport into a verdict without reward. The orange field does not remain a separate frame, but enters the portrait through diagonal scratches and fissures that interrupt the continuity of the print. The face retains its recognisability, yet appears exposed to the same abrasion as a surface intended to be revealed and consumed.

The work thus brings into portraiture the grammar Zampogna developed in his scratchcard imagery, while changing what is at stake: it is not only economic hope that is devalued, but also the possibility that authorial identity might escape common codes. Lunetta remains present in the precision of his features, while proverb, colour and verdict prevent any celebratory closure. Poetry emerges not as a guarantee of authenticity, but as the capacity to inhabit shared language critically, even when that language promises passion and returns a predetermined defeat.