Room 17 – VIXI

The steel doors of Aula 17 stand closed, expressionless. Matte black, scratched, impassive. Above them, a bureaucratic sign: 7ᵃ Sezione, Edificio B. On the right, a board once meant to list names and hearings is now empty—washed clean by time or intention.

Seventeen is an unlucky number in Italy. Rearranged, the Roman numerals XVII form VIXI—”I have lived”, an epitaph. And so, Room 17 becomes more than a courtroom. It becomes a threshold. A place where the living confront endings. The end of freedom. The end of illusions. Sometimes, the end of justice itself.

The symmetry of the composition tightens the tension. Every element is locked in place. Nothing moves, and nothing is random. The cobblestone floor, scuffed and institutional, reinforces the gravity of what this place represents. No drama is needed here. The weight is ambient.

This photograph doesn’t ask for permission to tell its truth. It simply waits for the next echo of footsteps, the next creak of the door, the next fate sealed behind those handles.

And outside the frame, life goes on—until the number seventeen finds you too.