The Abandoned Asylum is a series I created after visiting the asylum of Volterra (Italy), a psychiatric hospital built in 1887. The hospital operated until 1978, when it was finally shut down. Today, the place offers a grim picture of what life inside its walls must’ve been, with common showers and stalls, broken wheel chairs, and hospital beds. The walls have peeled off, portions of the ceiling have fallen, and most of the windows have shuttered. Over the years, many artists have visited the building and embellished the walls with powerful graffiti. As I walked across these desolate rooms I tried to imagine what life must have been for the many children that, at any given point in time, inhabited these walls. May their pain have not been in vain.
