Stefano Mariani's intriguing painting is a border art. On the limit between dream and reality, between the defined and the nuanced, one step away from darkness and one step away from light. A journey in search of internal and external universes. In these urban environments that are sometimes marginal, forgotten, unseen, the great absentee is precisely the human being under a light that stands on the border of day and night where man can still be the protagonist and master of space. These works are existential snapshots, photographic-style paintings that tell of loneliness and desolation but also memories and unusual points of view. The urban scenarios are represented with dark and opaque tones, favoring ranges of grays and browns. The human figures - if present - are simple silhouettes, passing entities, and the symbols of today's civilization dominate everything (road signs, signs, repeating architecture).