Riccardo Rappa - Angoscia contemporanea

Inspired by The Scream by Edvard Munch, one of the most powerful and recognizable images in the history of art, this work reinterprets the concept of existential anguish in a contemporary key.
In the original painting, Munch depicts primordial fear, loneliness, and despair of the individual facing a world perceived as unstable and oppressive. The central figure does not scream only for itself but seems to give voice to a universal, timeless cry.

In this modern reinterpretation, anguish is brought into the digital present.
The iconic gesture and the expressionist landscape remain, but the reason for disturbance changes: a smartphone screen with a battery at 1% becomes the symbol of new emotional fragilities, daily anxieties, and technological dependence that characterize our era.

A seemingly trivial detail thus becomes a metaphor.
the fear of being disconnected, losing control, and suddenly becoming isolated.
The scream no longer originates solely from an abstract inner discomfort, but from a modern tension that is shared and immediately recognizable.

The work creates a direct dialogue between universal anguish and contemporary anxiety, combining subtle irony and profound reflection, and making the message accessible without diminishing its emotional strength.