#AI MAGAZINE | #70 | Summer 2015

aI # M A G A Z I N E

reportage: MARIO GIACOMELLI ANA Tzarev MELISSA ZEXTER ABU DHABI Art

PORTFOLIO: DAVID STEWART filippo maria zonta CAROLINE GAVAZZI DAVID LACHAPELLE

Summer 2015 | No.70 | EUR 12,00 ( Italy only ) - EUR 17,00 ( A - E - P ) - EUR 20,00 ( b - D - F - l ) - GBP 17,00 ( uk ) - Chf 24,00 ( ch ) - Chf 22,00 ( CH TICINO )

a photography & CONTEMPORARY cultures’ mag.

About SUMMER: “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind”.” ― (William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

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APERITIVO

ILLUSTRATO

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photography

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CONTEMPORARY

cultures’

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Giudecca 10 30133 Venezia, Italy Tel: +39 041 240 801 www.hotelcipriani.com

No.70 Summer 2015

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AI/contents summer

White reflection

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Editor’s letter by Christina MAGNANELLI WEITENSFELDER

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Light is the essence Editorial by Sergio Signorini

The beginning of everything Editorial by Federica Facchini

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MOVING IMAGE interview by

Christina MAGNANELLI WEITENSFELDER

antechamber of paradise

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interview by Brian Midnight

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Contemplative Photography interview by Federica Facchini

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REFLECTION ON LIFE profile

by federica facchini

Secret Fears interview

by Brian Midnight

celebraTION Of LIFE profile by

Luca magnanelli

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Tempus Fugit.

BUT RETURNS IN CATTANI’S WORK! profile by

michael sÄgerbrecht

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David Stewart, Table dog (detail), from the project Other Stuff

MARIO GIACOMELLI, THIS STRANGER interview by andrea tinterri

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INTERVIEW + Portfolio

David Stewart > Above:

THE RAPE OF VENICE about

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antechamber of paradise > Above:

Valentina Picozzi, Blackpearl (detail), from the project Exporn, 2014

Gaia Conti

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71 74 76

2015

INTIMATE STITCHING

interview by GAIA CONTI

PURE CANDOUR: TRUTH, OR INVENTION, IN PHOTOGRAPHY about

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Marco Vincenzi

Makes Me Joyful

interview by Andrea tinterri

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MODERN. CONTEMPORARY: ABU DHABI ART about by Giacomo belloni

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DOMESTIC PAVILLIONS by benedetta alessi

BEYOND THE REAL MATTER

about by giacomo croci

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about

must-see

aGENDA by

STEFANIA DOTTORI

Above

Portfolio

Caroline Gavazzi > Above: Promenade II (detail), Le calvaire, 2009, from the project White Whisper

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and beyond parody or infringement?

photography and law

by CRISTINA MANASSE

The reassuring narrative of David LaChapelle profile by Andrea Tinterri

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MARIO GIACOMELLI, THIS STRANGER > On the left: Mario Giacomelli, 31 Dicembre, 1997 Vintage, gelatin silver print, cm 30x40 ŠRita Giacomelli, Courtesy Archivio Mario Giacomelli - Sassoferrato

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Portfolio DAVID LACHAPELLE >

Above: When The World Is Through, 2005, chromogenic print @David LaChapelle

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AI MAGAZINE a photography and CONTEMPORARY cultures’ mag.

No.

70

/ SUMMER 2015

This issue is dedicated to REFLEX WHITE colour and to methaphorical meaning of ‘Above and beyond’.

MASTHEAD

This Magazine was founded in 2007 by Greta Edizioni and is published quarterly in collaboration with BAG Photo Art Gallery and Zeitgeist Association.

Distributed in 28 countries around the world, AI Magazine (Paper version)can be found in bookstores, museum bookshops, concept stores.

You can order the magazine through your library or directly from the publisher; the digital version is available all over the world, on iTunes App Store.

AI magazine is an eco-friendly quarterly: printed on acid-free paper with water-based pigmented inks for eco-printing.

Subscription Customer Service: telephone +39 0721 403988, Monday - Friday, 9AM – 6PM e-mail: abo@aperitivoillustrato.it Advertising departement: Bildung Inc. - Exclusive AD Company for contact@bildung-inc.com Italy Office, Headquarters: Greta Edizioni, via degli Abeti 102-104, 61122 Pesaro, Italy telephone: +39 0721 403988 fax: +39 0721 1792507 e-mail: greta@gretaedizioni.com United Kingdom Office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom Simone D. Casadei Bernardi | telephone: +44 7546 694318 e-mail: simone.uk@bildung-inc.com United Arab Emirates Office: Marina Square, Building 2, Al Reem Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Giacomo Belloni | telephone: +971 55 367 9446 e-mail: giacomo.emirates@bildung-inc.com editor at large: Alberto Bevilacqua Editor in chief and creative director: Christina Magnanelli Weitensfelder editorial staff: Luca Magnanelli Weitensfelder (Director) Stefania Dottori redazione@aperitivoillustrato.it Translator: Daniel Clarke Paper distribution: Europe and rest of the world: Aie - Agenzia Italiana di Esportazione Srl Via Manzoni, 12 - 20089 Rozzano (MI) - Italy, telephone: +39 02 5753911 fax: +39 02 57512606 www.aie-mag.com Italy: Messinter SpA Via Campania, 12 - 20098 San Giuliano Milanese (MI) - Italy, telephone: +39 02 57512612 fax: +39 02 98281410 www.messinter.it Where: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, France and French Riviera, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Switzerland-Ticino, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Publisher: Greta Edizioni e-mail: greta@gretaedizioni.com digital distribution: App Store Printing: Graffietti, Italy Contributors in this Issue: Benedetta Alessi, Giacomo Croci, Brian Midnight, Michael Sägerbrecht Website: www.aperitivoillustrato.it Facebook: L’APERITIVO ILLUSTRATO MAGAZINE / L’APERITIVO ILLUSTRATO ITALIA Pinterest: L’APERITIVO ILLUSTRATO Twitter: AI_magazine All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission from the publisher.

The publisher declares its willingness to settle fees that may be owed for texts and images whose sources could not be traced or identified.

Cover: David Stewart, June in february (detail), from the project Fogeys Illustration on flyleafs: Anna Sutor, Un minuto a Venezia, mixed technique, 2015

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AI | contributing editors

Gaia Conti We first met at the Guggenheim, with Dalì, Calder and Picasso; we then got to know each other better at the Pompidou Centre with Man Ray and Beuys, but it became true love at the Moma immersed in Blake, Woodman and Calle.

We have been together ever since, Art and I. Art is the fascinating lagoon that I have decided to dive into, like that of my city, Venice, which Thomas Mann described as “[..] the flattering and suspect beauty – this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism”.

Sergio Signorini Born in Codogno (Italy) in 1952, he attended the Liceo Classico Gioia in Piacenza to then graduate in enginieering in Pavia in 1976. He worked as a full-time architect from 1977 to 2000, a year which was marked by a profound existential crisis. Since the early 1980s he has been working in the field of bioclimatic architecture. Over the last 15 years he has studied psychoanalysis and psychology for the configuration of living spaces adapted to a harmonious sharing of habitats. He is a higher education teacher for the University of Pavia’s Literature faculty and Department of Art History, as well as in many other faculties of Architecture and Engineering. He writes for magazines and newspapers, L’architecture, Cronache e storia – directed by Bruno Zevi, Spazio & Spazio – directed

by Giancarlo De Carlo, Costruire in Laterizio – for which he has also written the book review column, and AI magazine. He writes in the role of curator for art and photography, and is an inquisitive and tireless seeker of truth and the meaning of life.

Cristina Manasse Lawyer, more than 20 years of experience in art/photography law, copyright, also digitally.

Represents artists/collectors/galleries, museums/institutions, start ups/platforms, editing companies. Advises clients on art law/IP issues, ie. drafting art-related agreements, also for organization/management of art fairs/cultural events. Member of the Advisory Board of the Italian fair of photography. Associate Researcher at Ask Centre, Bocconi University, for art law and copyright.Former Chairman, Art,Cultural Institution & Heritage Law Committee of International Bar Association.

Author of articles, speaker at conferences, lecturer in university courses, also abroad, on art law/copyright. Worked also abroad with major law firms.

Giacomo Belloni Born in Rome in 1964. He grad-

uated summa cum laude in Art History at the University “La Sapienza” in Rome. Currently he is a gallery owner, art curator, auctioneer, writer and art journalist. He organises events and exhibitions of Italian and international artists all over Italy, in public and private locations. He works with the publishing house Greta Edizioni and the quarterly AI Magazine; he’s a writer of art-books and catalogues. Expert in art marketing, he collaborates with several galleries on the new tendencies of Contemporary Art. He currently lives in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, where he continues to with Greta Edizioni on the launching of a new project in the Persian Gulf.

Marco Vincenzi Born in Fano (Italy) in 1958, he lives in the Republic of San Marino. A sociologist and an expert on visual communication and photography, he has collaborated with organisations and institutions for the implementation of research projects, cultural activities and exhibitions. In particular, he has been involved in projects concerning the issues of childhood and the social participation of children, making use of photography for his projects. He has written various articles on these activities. He was co-curator of the series Edizioni di Photographia for the Publisher AIEP and currently teaches a high-level masters course on ‘Visual culture in relation to contemporary photography’ in Modena. Since 2013 he has been the curator of exhibitions and seminars at RF64 Spazio Minimo in Gualdicciolo, in the Republic of San Marino.

Andrea Tinterri Independent critic and curator, he works in the field of photography, reflecting on possible contaminations with other forms of narration. He is one of the members of TO Studio (Parma, Italy), a pluridisciplinary studio which combines urban planning with theoretical research, writing, photography and economics. Since 2010 he has formed part of the editorial team of the literary magazine La Luna di Traverso and since 2013 has collaborated with the Italian quarterly D’Ars, the international quarterly AI magazine and the publishing house Greta Edizioni.

Anna Sutor

Architect, designer and illustrator. Following her Master at the Architectural Association in London, she worked for Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam, and then for the architect Norman Foster. She lives and works in Milan as an illustrator, dedicating particular attention to drawing the many aspects of the city. Her drawings have been published in Europe, the United States and Brazil. Her work has been awarded by the American Society of Illustrators and the Italian Association of Illustrators.

Federica Facchini A journalist who, following her degree in History of Contemporary Art at the Università degli Studi Carlo Bo in Urbino (Italy), has worked in the cultural and museum sector since 2003. She is a museum cataloguer and, since 2004, has collaborated on the project for the creation of the Museum of the City of Urbino. Since 2006 she has held a teaching post at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Macerata where she teaches History of Contemporary Art and History of Photography. She organises and curates exhibitions and is an author for various publications and periodicals (The newspaper Il Messaggero, the magazine Exibart, and the quarterly AI magazine.)

Daniel Clarke Free-lance translator. Born in Kent, England, he passed his childhood and early adult life in London before deciding at the age of 22 to move out to Italy. He initially lived in Mantova, and then Milan, where he worked for the British Council for 8 years. In 2005 he began translating for the Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa, a collaboration which continues today. Daniel currently lives in Olbia, Sardinia, and, as well as the Piccolo and AI magazine, collaborates with a number of organisations including the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.

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Cecile Gallet Contemporary Galerie d’art | Fine art gallery

Photos by Caroline Gavazzi

Cecile Gallet Contemporary Fine Art Gallery Marseille - France Ph +33 671448864 Email cecile@cecilegalletcontemporary.com FB www.facebook.com/cecilegalletcontemporary Instagram Cecile Gallet Contemporary

No.70 Summer 2015

white reflection

We very often, unconsciously, tend to look down. Perhaps for the simple reason that we walk

on two feet, and it is therefore a good idea to see where we are going, in order not to trip. This habit could be one of the reasons why we are lead to have a rather limited vision of the world, limited to our daily lives. If we try to lift our gaze a little, maybe only every now and then, we would immediately see that that which surrounds us is much greater than we tend to think. And if by chance, at the height of an outburst of courageous enterprise, we dare to point our gaze above the horizon, allowing it to climb ever higher, we make an incredible discovery: a blinding star which floods us (well, perhaps not when it’s cloudy) with its energy, filling our world with light and heat. Up there, who knows where, the sun shines its light in all directions, and every single ray of light holds within the power to annihilate us. An energy which is too much for us, and for our senses. Light, however, descending from its divine dimension to our earthly condition, is corrupted, twisted, it crashes, bounces, slides infinite times. When it reaches our senses it is almost completely domesticated, dominated. Incarnated in a form we are ale to understand, light reaches our eyes and tells us everything it has seen: drops of water scattered in the wind, the blue of the oceans, the green fields, the white wings of gulls. Everything. And in order to speak a language we can understand it splits into thousands of colours, describing everything in great detail. It is a continuous conversation, in constant evolution, because the world around us is alive and pulsating, and with each tiny variation everything changes. This is the magic of photography. The ability to capture in an image the narrative of light. A moment. A unique and unrepeatable instant.

A photograph is the result of infinite beams of light which are reflected and refracted infinite times, diminishing in intensity, modified in chromaticity. Observing a photograph, however, one can sometimes find a clue, a trace which helps us to remember. Perhaps on a metallic or a wet surface: a white reflection, which escaped capture, witness to the true nature of light, of its original integral and unbowed nature. In that candid reflection lies the whole universe.

Si tende molto spesso, inconsapevolmente, a guardare verso il basso. Forse per il semplice motivo che camminiamo su due piedi, e quindi è consigliabile vedere dove andiamo, per non inciampare. Quest’abitudine potrebbe essere uno dei motivi per cui si è portati ad avere una visione del mondo un po’ limitata, circoscritta al nostro vivere quotidiano. Se si prova ad alzare un pochino lo sguardo, magari anche solo qualche volta, si nota subito che ciò che ci circonda è più vasto di quello che tendiamo a pensare. E se per caso, all’apice di un impeto di coraggiosa intraprendenza, osiamo puntare i nostri occhi al di sopra dell’orizzonte, facendoli scivolare sempre più in alto, l’incredibile scoperta: un astro accecante che ci inonda (beh, non nelle giornate nuvolose) con la sua energia, riempendo il nostro mondo di luce e calore. Lassù, chissà dove, il Sole irradia in tutte le direzioni la sua potenza, ed ogni singolo raggio di luce ha in sé il potenziale per annientarci. Un’energia troppo grande per noi, e per i nostri sensi. La luce, però, scendendo dalla sua dimensione divina fino alla nostra condizione terrena, si corrompe, si contorce, sbatte, rimbalza, scivola infinite volte. Quando arriva ai nostri sensi è per lo più ammansita, domata. Incarnata in una forma a noi comprensibile, la luce arriva ai nostri occhi e gli racconta tutto quello che ha visto: gocce d’acqua disperse nel vento, l’azzurro degli oceani, il verde dei prati, il bianco delle ali dei gabbiani. Tutto. E per parlare un linguaggio a noi comprensibile si scinde in mille colori, descrivendo ogni cosa nei minimi dettagli. È un dialogo continuo, in perenne evoluzione, perché il mondo intorno a noi è vivo e pulsante, e ad ogni piccola variazione tutto cambia. Ecco la magia della fotografia. La capacità di fermare in una immagine il racconto della luce. Un attimo. Un istante unico e irripetibile. Una fotografia è il risultato di infiniti raggi di luce che si sono riflessi e rifratti infinite volte, diminuendo di intensità, modificati nella cromaticità. Osservando una fotografia, però, a volte si può trovare un indizio, una traccia capace di farci ricordare. Magari su una superficie metallica, o su una superficie bagnata: un riflesso bianco, sfuggito alla cattura, testimone della vera natura della luce, della sua originaria natura integra ed indomita. Ecco, in quel candido riflesso c’è l’intero universo.

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AI | editor’s letter

Christina Magnanelli weitensfelder Editor in chief & Creative director

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No.70 Summer 2015

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Sergio

Signorini

light is the essence

The Italian word Binario: as an adjective it refers to the binary system: yes-no, presence-absence, 1-0. As a noun, railway lines, parallel lines. In politics an oxymoron: parallel convergence. Binato: One adjective, three meanings: coupled or paired; of dual nature; twinned. Western culture is founded on dualism and dichotomy: In the search for one’s true Self, one’s own divine part, one’s happiness, an essential passage is the rediscovery of one’s own unity, the balanced coexistence of opposites. Oriental culture in fact proposes, in place of the or – or – exclusive, oppositive, alternative – the and – and – and – inclusive, cooperative, inter-connective and enriching. White, the sum of all colours, symbolizes unity, All, the Absolute; the experience of light, by no coincidence defined as white itself; of illumination. Photography – of which light is the essence – often reaffirms the supremacy – a western assertion which compares, judges, separates by nature – of white and black: is this reasonable? Photographs in black and white do not exist – save for digital elaborations or captures – rather they are images in which the graduations, in an infinite range of greys, create articulated and complex spaces, rich with luministic undertones, atmospheres, ideas, and extremely connotative adjectives for the subject portrayed.

Fuzzy logic – by no coincidence also known as unfocussed logic – dissolves the inflexibility of the binary system, superseding it, amplifying expressive liberty. In colour, printing by stochastic screening or FM screening creates the probability of perceptive and emotive experiences and vibrations previously unimaginable. The couple is the training ground for a profound self-conscious – due to the reflection of the other – and for the reconstruction of individual unity: first, in the neurotic phase, in the reciprocal complementation of each other; to then reach freedom and true love in the recognition of being no longer separate individuals but part of a whole, of white. Even dual nature, from bipolarity to the alternation between Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, right up to the estranged and dissociated double in the Portrait of Dorian Gray – all expressions of grey, when not of black – is surpassed by the pacific coexistence of opposites: under the control, first, of an Ego expanded by awareness; then of a profound and true Self, spontaneously fluent.

And finally the twin, the soul mate, the alter ego, emerges into reality when one makes space for a third: in a couple, as well as you and I, us, but also the Absolute, the Sacred; in disassociation, as well as the alternation of the parts, their pacific integration, each one with the right to a flexible and inter-changeable co-existence (and – and – and); with twins the right to be identical and opposite at the same time, an aqueous nonidentity open to continuous change, moment by moment. Always in the here and now. _

Binario: aggettivo – sistema binario: sì-no, presenza-assenza, 1-0 – e sostantivo – rotaie, guide parallele. In politica ossimoro: convergenze parallele. Binato: solo aggettivo, tre significati: accoppiato, abbinato; di due nature; gemello.

La cultura occidentale è imperniata su dualismo e dicotomia: compito imprescindibile, dunque, nella ricerca del vero sé, della propria parte divina, della felicità, è ritrovare la propria unità, la compresenza equilibrata degli opposti. L’oriente propone, in vece dell’o-o – esclusivo, oppositivo, alternativo – l’e-e-e – inclusivo, cooperativo, inter-connettente e arricchente.

Il bianco, somma di tutti i colori, simboleggia l’unità, il Tutto, l’Assoluto; l’esperienza della luce, non a caso definita bianca; dell’illuminazione. In fotografia – la luce ne è essenza – si ribadisce spesso il primato – affermazione occidentale che confronta, giudica, separa per valore – del bianco e nero: sensato? Non esistono fotografie in bianco e nero – a meno di elaborazioni o riprese digitali – ma immagini nelle quali le sfumature, nell’infinita gamma dei grigi, creano spazi articolati e complessi, ricchi di annotazioni luministiche, atmosfere, suggestioni, di aggettivi fortemente connotativi del soggetto ritratto. Insomma: la logica fuzzy – non a caso detta anche logica sfumata o sfocata – scioglie la rigidezza del sistema binario, soppiantandolo e amplificandone le libertà espressive. Anche nel colore la stampa a retino stocastico o FM crea probabilità di vissuti percettivi, emozionali e vibrazioni precedentemente impensabili. La coppia è palestra per una profonda auto-conoscenza – grazie al rispecchiamento dell’altro – e per la ricostruzione dell’unità individuale: prima, in fase nevrotica, nel completarsi vicendevolmente; poi raggiungendo libertà e amore vero nel riconoscersi non più individui separati, ma parte di un tutto, del bianco. Anche la doppia natura, dal bipolarismo all’alternanza fra Dottor Jekyll e Mr. Hyde, fino al doppio straniato, dissociato del ritratto di Dorian Gray – tutte espressioni dei grigi, quando non del nero – viene superata dalla coesistenza pacifica degli opposti: sotto il controllo di un io espanso in consapevolezza, prima; in un sé profondo e vero, ormai fluente spontaneamente, dopo.

Il gemello, infine, l’anima gemella, l’alter ego, emergono nella realtà nel momento in cui si fa spazio al terzo: nella coppia, oltre l’io e il tu, il noi, ma anche l’Assoluto, il Sacro; nella dissociazione, oltre l’alternanza delle parti, la loro pacifica integrazione, ognuna con diritto di co-esistenza (e-e-e) flessibile e inter-cambiabile; nei gemelli il diritto ad essere identici e opposti a un tempo, la disidentità acquosa aperta a continui cambiamenti, attimo per attimo. Sempre nel qui e ora.

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PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT MASTERPIECES August 13th - September 13th, 2015

- THURSDAY, August 13th, 2015 6:30 PM

Opening & Workshop

BAG Photo Art Gallery via degli Abeti 102, Pesaro

- FRIDAY, August 14th, 2015 6:30 PM

Opening

The exhibition is organised by BAG Curators, Zeitgeist association and curated by Christina Magnanelli Weitensfelder with Roberto Salbitani, in collaboration with Gigi Vegini.

Art direction by Alessandro Giampaoli.

An exhibition organised in cooperation with the Prima Luce Archive.

Scalone Vanvitelliano Piazza del Monte, Pesaro

patronage

ZEITGEIST ART EXHIBIT GROUP

B A G A R T p h o p h o t o

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Digital pigmented processes, fine art and services.

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buffet & Catering GORINI BANQUETING

No.70 Summer 2015

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AI | editorial

federica

facchini

the beginning of everything

Colour forms our very existence, it is the language of nature with which mankind can not only rationally deduce information, but also gain insights on a perceivable, esthetical and psychological level. According to the ancients, colour came from white and black, where the first was the light, the precondition for all colours, and the second darkness, the negation of all light. The duality of white and black thus corresponds to that of light and shade, of day and night, of knowledge and ignorance. The symbolism of colour can be found in art, in literature, in religion, in heraldry, and in alchemy.

In the catholic conception for example, white is the robe of the Pope, the baptism gown, that of the First Communion, of the noviciate, and of marriage, because it is the colour of purity, virginity, light, knowledge and the beginning of everything. In Oriental culture, on the other hand, bereavement is white, as it represents death, absence, cold, associated nonetheless with new life through reincarnation.

Wassily Kandinsky, in his essay Concerning the spiritual in art (1910), wrote: “White […] is a symbol of a world from which all colour as a definite attribute has disappeared. This world is too far above us for its harmony to touch our souls. A great silence, like an impenetrable wall, shrouds its life from our understanding. White, therefore, has this harmony of silence, which works upon us negatively…

It is not a dead silence, but one pregnant with possibilities. White has the appeal of the nothingness that is before birth, of the world in the ice age”. In the history of 20th century art the renewal of pictorial language came about with Kasimir Malevich’s celebrated White on white (1918), the first of its kind in history. In the history of Italian art, however, it was not until the end of the 1950s that a kind of white revolution came about with Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani. White therefore as the testimony of an epic change. Whether it is an empty canvas or a page yet to be written, white is the symbol of a pure, uncontaminated space, a place for creativity and that which is to come.

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Il colore informa tutta la nostra esistenza, è il linguaggio della natura da cui l’uomo non solo può evincere razionalmente informazioni ma trarne suggestioni a livello sensibile, estetico e psicologico. Secondo gli antichi i colori nascevano dal bianco e dal nero, dove il primo era la luce, presupposto di tutti i colori, e il secondo la tenebra, negazione di ogni luce. La dualità del bianco e del nero corrisponde pertanto a quella della luce e dell’ombra, del giorno e della notte, della conoscenza e dell’ignoranza. Il simbolismo del colore lo si trova nell’arte, nella letteratura, nella religione, nell’araldica, nell’alchimia.

Nella concezione cattolica ad esempio, bianco è l’abito del papa, quello del battesimo, della prima comunione, del noviziato e del matrimonio perché è il colore della purezza, della verginità, della luce, della conoscenza e dell’inizio di ogni cosa. Mentre nella filosofia orientale il lutto è bianco, in quanto rappresenta la morte, l’assenza, il freddo, associato tuttavia all’inizio di una nuova vita nella reincarnazione. E Vasilij Kandinskij, nel saggio Lo spirituale nell’arte (1910), scriveva: «Il bianco […] è quasi il simbolo di un mondo in cui tutti i colori, come principi e sostanze fisiche, sono scomparsi. É un mondo così alto, rispetto a noi, che non ne avvertiamo il suono. Sentiamo solo un immenso silenzio che, tradotto in immagine fisica, ci appare come un muro freddo, invalicabile, indistruttibile, infinito. Per questo il bianco ci colpisce, come un grande silenzio che ci sembra assoluto. Interiormente lo sentiamo come un non suono, molto simile alle pause musicali che interrompono, brevemente, lo sviluppo di una frase o di un tema, senza concluderlo definitivamente. è un silenzio che non è morto ma ricco di potenzialità. Il bianco è il suono di un silenzio che, improvvisamente, riusciamo a comprendere. è la giovinezza del nulla, o meglio, un nulla prima dell’origine, prima della nascita. Forse la terra risuonava così nel tempo bianco dell’Era Glaciale». Nella storia dell’arte del Novecento il rinnovamento del linguaggio pittorico avviene grazie al celebre White on white (1918) di Kasimir Malevich, il primo nella storia nel suo genere. Nella storia dell’arte italiana, invece, bisognerà attendere la fine degli anni Cinquanta per assistere ad una sorta di rivoluzione del bianco con Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni ed Enrico Castellani. Il bianco dunque come testimonianza di un cambiamento epocale. Che sia tela vuota o un foglio non ancora scritto, il bianco è simbolo di uno spazio puro, incontaminato, luogo della creatività e del divenire.

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No.70 Summer 2015

David Stewart portfolio

He began his career by photographing the most important punk bands of the London scene, projects which have influenced his style ever since. After graduating in photography he moved to the British capital in 1981, where he worked as a photographic assistant; three years later he opened his own studio. In 1995 he produced the short film Cabbage, which was accompanied by a project of surreal photographic images, a tribute to the maltreated vegetable. In 2001 he published Fogeys, which narrated moments in the lives of old people who had aged in a rather unorthodox way. His is a surreal and ironic point of view, with pop colours emphasising the scenes. The characters are typically English, characterised by their surroundings and their behaviour and dress. These projects have been flanked by many others, of equal visual impact and with a wide range of subjects.

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