The exhibition WHEEL OF FORTUNE [La Ruota della Fortuna] is a collection of visual stories (paintings and drawings) accompanied by authorial commentary, recalling my experiences as a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. The exhibition revolves around the question of the role of chance in each of our lives.

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The starting point is the titular WHEEL OF FORTUNE – a game show popular in Poland and Italy at the time, where I found employment as an audience member. Each round of play begins with a spin of the wheel, which randomly lands on a space representing a prize or loss of money. This crude metaphor for life, where cunning, reflexes, and perceptiveness guarantee success as long as the player continues to be lucky, resonated well with my situation at the time. I was penniless and the most trivial matters of life, such as finding a place to stay or earning a few euros, were dependent on the whims of fate, a stroke of luck. Of course, sensible people eventually become independent from these excesses of chance and prudently build their wealth. And yet, one can still ask: to what extent is who and where we are today the result of a lucky coincidence, a chance encounter, an incredible coincidence, a chain of unpredictable events?

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Alek Slon