Being connected is a state that has been with us since the womb. The child is connected to the mother and, throughout its existence, will try to connect and disconnect from people, groups, labels, thoughts and even from itself. Being connected allows us to regain lost harmony with ourselves, with others and with the world around us. Bonds can be tangible or invisible, acquired or lost, gained or denied. And in any case they imply expansions, complications and corrections. Being connected with our future means being people who are aware of the importance of our every gesture and its ability to affect our tomorrow. Living in connection would seem to be the leitmotif of modernity, although it often includes its opposite: exclusion. Bonds identify us, change our view of reality, expand our knowledge and improve our ideas. To be connected means to be ‘included’ in a community, to be part of it thanks to the invisible threads that link us to others. Connections are important because being connected means first of all being.

Regardless of the choice of medium – painting, sculpture, photography, performance – the artistic gesture is always oriented towards connecting us with other possible dimensions of meaning. In this sense ‘connecting’ means tuning our soul, as if it were an instrument, to give us back the possibility, in our everyday lives, of greater fullness and authenticity. At TEDxBustoArsizio Letizia Cariello’s red thread weaves the visible and the invisible, weaving new bonds and mending broken ones.

The talk was presented during ‘TEDxBustoArsizio’, a series of TED-style conferences on the theme of ‘the importance of connections’, curated by journalist and writer Anna Prandoni.