Giovanni Maria Sacco's Silent Theaters is seemingly about abandoned factories whose silence reminds us of the silence of theaters after the last performance. And, as in theaters, one imagines these places full of noise, filled with voices, people and activity that suddenly stop and are no longer there. But the real theme is the end of human endeavor, the slow decay of things, hopes, efforts. Before these buildings are demolished to make way for some useless shopping mall, they show that ruin and decay can also be dignified and beautiful. In fact, this is about death itself: too horrible to look at directly and realize that it is actually just one step in a journey, perhaps the last. Sacco's abandoned factories present a clear and haunting metaphor for death.
