Benito Mussolini met Kurt Schuschnigg in Venetië 1937

Here's a photograph, made by an anonymous artist, of Benito Mussolini meeting Kurt Schuschnigg in Venice. It's fascinating to see how the artist has added these gestural marks over the image. They are like cuts into the surface, or maybe ghostly presences hovering above the figures. I wonder what the artist was thinking? Perhaps they wanted to disrupt the image, to question the power dynamics at play. The black of the crosses stands out against the grey scale of the photograph, it’s stark and unforgiving. I can imagine them taking a brush and stabbing at the surface, again and again, as if trying to break through the facade of these men. There is a violence to this gesture that can be felt. What is being buried here? What is being brought to light? It’s like a conversation between the photograph and the marks, each altering the other, creating something new. Ultimately, this piece reminds me that art is never really finished, it's always in process, in dialogue, open to new meanings and interpretations.