Travellers, 02 by Valentina Diena
With Travellers, 02, Valentina Diena transforms an everyday object into a story of memory and travel. The artwork is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Bottle Neck. A bottle holds a message that will never be read. Through hyperrealistic drawing, the artist explores the value of objects and their ability to preserve stories and memories.
The artist: Valentina Diena
Valentina Diena (Milan, 1996) is an Italian hyperrealist artist known for her colored pencil drawings on paper. Her research explores everyday objects as vessels of memory and identity. By dedicating time and precision to manual execution, she restores uniqueness and value to objects that in contemporary society are often reduced to industrial products.
Description “Travellers, 02”
The artwork depicts a transparent bottle of Aalborg Jubilæums Akvavit, a traditional Danish spirit. The glass, labels, and reflections are reproduced with exceptional precision. The use of colored pencils creates a striking photographic effect. Inside the bottle, a rolled-up piece of paper is visible. This detail introduces a narrative and symbolic dimension. The neutral background highlights the object and the story it holds.
Meaning
The title refers to travel, understood as movement through space and time. The artwork is inspired by Andersen’s fairy tale The Bottle Neck. In the story, a bottle goes through several adventures and carries a rescue message across the sea. However, the message is never read.
The bottle also holds personal significance. It belonged to the artist’s grandfather and dates back to the 1970s. It represents a connection to family memories and Denmark. The object becomes a witness to past experiences. The message inside evokes hope, anticipation, and words that never reach their destination.
Conclusion
Travellers, 02 combines hyperrealism, storytelling, and personal memory. Through an ordinary object, Valentina Diena invites viewers to discover the hidden stories of everyday life. The bottle becomes a symbol of the passage of time and the memories that continue to live through objects.