This was the first of three images I created on the theme of contemporary “hells”. It collects all of the nightmares of a horrible office environment where the poor workers are attacked by the technology, surveilled and abused by some sort of boss that appears on multiple television screens. I created this image during the last year I lived in the province of Mantua. During the 18 years I lived there, a huge amount of the landscape was turned into shopping centers and commercial venues. Finally we got tired of the traffic and moved to a sleepier town in Umbria.

I was intensely aware of the negative effects of modernization in Northern Italy, which gave a lot of inspiration for these works. Also, office work was never a strong point for Italians and the amount of paperwork needed to operate a business has gotten way out of hand in all of Europe. The backdrop for the work consists of real public offices. They make perfect fit with their sterile and dehumanizing architecture, so different from the historical buildings. Even prisons were prettier.

This image is available as a limited edition print. Click here for more information.