This year, we have called on the artists at FMAV - Scuola di Alta Formazione to go beyond the portrait. The idea is to examine the classic iconography that we have traditionally associated with this genre. Of all forms of representation, this is the one that hews most closely to reality. But over the course of its physiologic evolution, it has progressively blurred the initial interest in documentation as it has embraced free artistic expression. It only took a short while before photographic images would become fertile ground for illusion. The staging of situations that originate in the real world would break away and move toward the representation of something other than reality. The actions do not happen spontaneously. They are methodically planned and constructed by the photographs thanks to the generous participation of the Zenato employees. Every person, every tool, and every place photographed is decontextualized. The relationship between all of these elements is formulated in a way that diverges from reality.
Nicola Biagetti plays with the bodies portrayed and the shapes that they take in relation to the objects surrounding them. In the process, persons are transformed into characters. Greta Grasso creates tableau vivant by photographing the employees in specially chosen costumes. The work is a constant balance between past and present. Paolo Munari Mandelli changes the function of a commonly used object in which a face can be seen. It’s a metaphysical presence that reappears in various places in the winery. The artistic duo Orecchie D’Asino uses textural references to extrapolate everyday reality and transform it into a fictional narrative. The storytelling reaches its greatest expression in the audiovisual language and photographic image. Bartolomeo Rossi shoots the winery employees “frozen” in an anomalous position that compels the viewer to see things in a different light. All of the projects have something in common. The overarching element is a desire to evade reality. The photograph as an illusion allows the subjects portrayed to become something that they are not.
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