No Man Is an Island

Dominique Marchais continues to explore what he began with Le Temps des grâces (2010) and La Ligne de partage des eaux (2014). No Man Is an Island begins at the Municipal Palace of Sienna, considering the frescoes of the Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. It then applies this question to contemporary locations, in Sicily and alpine regions, where local initiatives demonstrate good government – and above all, good sense for the common good. The title comes from 17th-century English poet John Donne and is not an appeal for widespread withdrawal, but instead the expression of a desire for virtuous co-dependency. John Donne continues thus: “every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”. (Arnaud Hée)