l`aperitivo illvstrato

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l’aperitivo
No.68/15
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illustrato
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L’APERITIVO
ILLVSTRATO
the
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English language international edition
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> Mac Conner Illustration for “Where’s Mary Smith?” in Good Housekeeping, June 1950, Gouache and gesso on masonite, © Mac Conner. Courtesy of the artist
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No. 68
L’Aperitivo
Rex Gold_Without Boundaries
Illustrato
contents
visual
ART
+
PHOTO
“Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.”
(Bertrand Russell)
12
Portfolio
Sandy Skoglund
40
Zanotto: technological research
interview | by Eric Mc Grath
21
Ich bin ein new yorker
exhibit | by Roberto Palumbo
42
Discourse on the method
about | by Giacomo Croci
22
Pawel Żak
interview | by Brian Midnight
43
Pompeii: what remains
about | by Marco Vincenzi
24
My journey: São Paulo
collection | by Serena Berselli
44
The Golden Age of Photography
about | by Marco Vincenzi
28
Boundaries or no boundaries?
about photography and law | by Cristina Manasse, lawyer
46
The tangible immanence of the void: the borderless
interview | by Debora Ricciardi
30
In praise of remoteness: a foray amongst the collages of Eugenia Loli
interview | by Gaia Conti
52
One interview to Alessandra Bello
interview | by Nicola Bustreo
34
Andrea Morucchio. Intacts thoughts
interview | by Laura Cornejo Brugués
54
Portfolio
Fabio Zonta
39
Services to art: the rental
about | by Adele Rossi
>30
>86
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No. 68
L’Aperitivo
Rex Gold_Without Boundaries
Illustrato
contents
style
&
MORE
69
Imperiale Signature
arts&crafts | by Michael Sägerbrecht
83
God and Gold
profile | by Alessandro Di Caro
70
Baselworld 2015
arts&crafts | by Luca Magnanelli Weitensfelder
84
At the Edge of the universe
interview | by Franca Severini
71
Wearing a butterfly
arts&crafts | by Michael Sägerbrecht
86
The Secession building in Vienna
profile | by Alessandro Antonioni
73
Enlightening time
arts&crafts | by Michael Sägerbrecht
89
Art courses in the Emirates
profile | by Giacomo Belloni
74
The v&a museum: the exhibition of dressed-in-white
arts&crafts | by Laura Migliano
90
Space tourism
profile | by Benedetta Alessi
76
Maison & Objet 2015
arts&crafts | by Luca Magnanelli Weitensfelder
94
Prima materia. James Lee Byars
profile | by Stefania Dottori
78
An unusual workshop
arts&crafts | by Laura Migliano
95
The Agenda, must-see art shows
by Stefania Dottori
80
I was born with a gift
profile | by Luca Maruffa
96
Mad men walking: from advertising to art
cover story | by Roberto Palumbo
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No. 68
L’Aperitivo
Rex Gold_Without Boundaries
Illustrato
REx Gold
- without boundaries -
M
any people think, and write, that the transformation of lead into gold was the goal of Alchemy. This, like many other things, is, of course, nonsense. This ancient esoteric philosophy actually pursued the desire to transcend the limits of human knowledge and achieve a
state of omniscience, to be able, among other things, to cure all ills and live forever. Of
course the manipulation of matter and the transmutation of various substances, including metals,
were also at the centre of alchemistic practices. Alchemy has spanned millennia and continents,
bringing with it a wealth of knowledge from which all the greatest scientists have drawn freely.
This is how modern science like physics and chemistry were born. Today we readily accept that a
gold ingot is composed of the same sub-atomic particles that constitute our flesh, however, we do
not question the meaning of this and we don’t bother to go beyond our cognitive barriers. Somehow
we are trapped in a cage of preconceptions and inhibitions and, at some point in our social evolution, we lost the ability to question ourselves, to go beyond. We take everything for granted, as
defined. We believe, poor fools, that there are no more barriers. Just as Alchemy, art wants to
cross the confines of human intellect, in an attempt to reach absolute perfection. And, like the
alchemists, artists work and manipulate raw material to create something different, capable of elevating our knowledge. The goldsmith who works with metals, the photographer that closes himself
in the darkroom with his chemicals, the sculptor who tries to free the forms trapped in the material: they are all seeking to break through barriers, the limits, to go beyond, into the unknown.
L’Aperitivo Illustrato also attempts to overcome some obstacles, following inspiration, attempting
to learn from art, knowing full well that the quest is endless.
M
olti pensano, e scrivono, che la trasformazione del piombo in
oro sia stata la meta dell’Alchimia. Questa, come molte altre
cose, è, naturalmente, una sciocchezza. Questa antica filosofia esoterica rincorreva in realtà il desiderio di trascendere
i limiti della conoscenza umana e raggiungere uno stato di omniscenza per essere in grado, tra le altre cose, di curare tutti i mali e
vivere in eterno. Di certo anche la manipolazione della materia e la
trasmutazione di varie sostanze, tra cui i metalli, erano al centro
delle pratiche alchemiche. L’Alchimia ha attraversato i millenni ed i
continenti, portando con sé un enorme bagaglio di conoscenza al quale
tutti i più grandi scienziati hanno attinto a piene mani. Ecco come
sono nate scienze moderne come fisica e chimica. Oggi accettiamo senza
problemi che un lingotto d’oro sia composto dalle stesse particelle
sub-atomiche che compongono la nostra carne, però non ci interroghiamo sul significato di questo e non ci preoccupiamo di andare oltre le
nostre barriere conoscitive. Siamo in qualche modo imprigionati in una
gabbia di preconcetti e inibizioni ed abbiamo perso, in qualche punto
della nostra evoluzione sociale, la capacità di interrogarci, di spingerci oltre. Diamo tutto per scontato, per definito. Crediamo, poveri
stolti, di non avere più barriere. Proprio come l’Alchimia, l’arte tende a voler varcare i confini dell’intelletto umano, nel tentativo di
raggiungere la perfezione assoluta. E, come gli alchimisti, anche gli
artisti lavorano e manipolano la materia per creare qualcosa di diverso, in grado di elevare la nostra conoscenza. L’orefice che lavora i
metalli, il fotografo che si chiude in camera oscura con i suoi acidi,
lo scultore che cerca di liberare le forme intrappolate nella materia:
tutti cercano di oltrepassare le barriere, i limiti, per andare oltre,
verso l’ignoto. Anche L’Aperitivo Illustrato tenta di valicare alcuni
ostacoli, seguendo l’ispirazione, per tentare di imparare dall’arte,
ben sapendo che il percorso è senza fine.
editor’s
letter
|
by
Christina
Magnanelli
weitensfelder
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SANDY
skoglund
Sandy Skoglund (Quincy - USA, September 11, 1946) is an artist, photographer and
installation artist who lives and works in New York (USA). Sandy Skoglund creates surrealist
images by building elaborate sets or tableaux, through the use of carefully selected coloured
objects and in a process that can take several months. Once the scenery is completed, Sandy
Skoglund takes photographs of the finished set while actors enact a performance.
Sandy Skoglund studied art history at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where
she graduated in 1968. In 1967, she also studied art history at the Sorbonne and at the École
du Louvre in Paris, France. After graduating from Smith College, she attended the University
of Iowa in 1969, where she studied film, media art and engraving. In 1971 she received her
Master of Arts and in 1972 a Master of Arts in Fine Art, painting. In 1972, Skoglund began
working as a conceptual artist in New York (USA). In 1978, she produced a series of still lives
with food as a dominant theme (Still Life).
One of her best-known works is Radioactive Cats (1980), a monochrome grey room inhabited
by two immobile elderly people and a large amount of green cats. Since then Skoglund has
been creating environmental installations using everyday objects, small sculptures and materials designed and manufactured by her. She creates surreal and obsessive dimensions dominated by uniform and unreal colours which she then photographs, making them even more
chilling by flattening the relationships between light/shadow whilst shooting and exploiting
bright colours on the large cibachromes printed on aluminium. She produces about one image
per year taking care of every detail. Each installation is built with different techniques and has
an autonomous significance, irrespective of the final photo, which nonetheless is an exhibit in
its own right representing the artificiality of the contemporary world.
Her works are exhibited in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago (USA), the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco (USA)
and the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio (USA). •
All images:
© Sandy Skoglund, courtesy Paci Contemporary
portfolio
curated by CHRISTINA
MAGNANELLI WEITENSFELDER
No. 68
L’Aperitivo
Rex Gold_Without Boundaries
Illustrato
ICH BIN EIN NEW YORKER
exhibit
|
by
ROBERTO
PALUMBO
Martin Schoeller
From left:
Cesar Millan with his Dogs,
South Central Los Angeles, USA, 2006
Sean Combs Painting, New York, USA, 2010
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ch bin ein New Yorker’ is what, in flawless
German, Martin Schoeller could say today
paraphrasing the famous phrase by Kennedy.
Martin, in fact, was born in Munich (Germany) in 1968 and, after studying photography in
Berlin at the renowned Lette-Verein and in Hamburg
(Germany), he moved to New York (USA) to work
as an assistant to a certain Annie Leibovitz. Four
years alongside one of the most important portrait
photographers taught him, by his own admission,
“the way to understand the most interesting side of
the subjects to photograph.” Yet, since 1996, when he
began his personal career, Schoeller has been able to
develop a very personal technique that would make
the style of his portraits unmistakable, taking him to
leading magazines such as Time, GQ, Rolling Stone,
Vogue, National Geographic and to the ultimate success of being appointed as the photographic editor of
The New Yorker: just like another certain gentleman
named Richard Avedon who, like him, before him,
had revolutionized the way of taking photographs
and portraits.
The keystone is the series simply called Close-Ups,
in which the faces of well-known personalities like
Cindy Sherman, Marc Jacobs, Emma Watson, Mark
Zuckerberg and others, are all portrayed using the
same technique: Schoeller measures the height of
the subject’s eye and arranges the lens of his camera
at the same level. Instead of a flash, he uses soft neon
lights, which contribute to the characteristic cat-eye
effect in his portraits. The series (1998-2005) became a show, his first personal exhibition held at the
CWC Gallery in Berlin.
After almost ten years Schoeller now a New Yorker
by adoption, having travelled the world and been on
the covers of the most illustrious magazines, is back
again in Berlin in the same gallery with Portraits. The
exhibition with more than 60 images presents a special part of the artist’s previously unpublished works.
Actors, politicians, athletes, artists and musicians
such as George Clooney, Jeff Koons, Robert De Niro,
Iggy Pop, Hillary Clinton, Christoph Waltz, Meryl
Streep and Michael Douglas are portrayed without
compromising their humanity. Up to this point.
Tony Hawk with a skateboard on the counter in his
kitchen, Steve Carell’s face covered with tape or the
wonderful face of Cate Blanchett presented in black
and white: direct and real. The vividly coloured settings play with the stereotyping and the clichés of
celebrity. The richness of detail in the large-scale
portraits portrays the normality and accessibility of
the protagonists, while the prints in black and white
show their beauty and humanity. In this exhibition,
viewers are invited to have fun, wonder and reflect.
Schoeller’s approach creates a direct and pure understanding of the most intimate aspects of the subject’s
personality, displaying a unique world that counterpoisesthe iconographic andthe personal aspects
shedding light on celebrity with a new and somewhat
exaggerated perspective. Again Martin Schoeller’s
works seem to want to upset the traditional interpretation of photography and portraiture giving viewers
a new perspective of the protagonists often accompanied by fun and black humour.
“In this exhibition, viewers
are invited to have fun,
wonder and reflect”
~
Ich bin ein new yorker
di Roberto Palumbo
“Ich bin ein New Yorker” è ciò che, in un tedesco impeccabile, potrebbe dire oggi Martin Schoeller parafrasando la famosa frase di Kennedy. Martin, infatti, è nato a
Monaco (Germania), classe 1968 e, dopo aver studiato
fotografia a Berlino presso il rinomato Lette-Verein e ad
Amburgo (Germania), si trasferisce a New York (USA)
per lavorare come assistente di una certa Annie Leibovitz. Quattro anni al fianco di una delle più importanti
ritrattiste da cui apprende, per sua stessa ammissione,
“il modo per imparare a capire il lato più interessante
dei soggetti da fotografare”. Eppure, a partire dal 1996,
anno in cui inizia la sua personale carriera, Shoeller
riesce a sviluppare una personalissima tecnica che renderà inconfondibile lo stile dei suoi ritratti, portandolo
su riviste come Time, GQ, Rolling Stone, Vogue, National Geographic ed al successo sublimato con l’ingag-
gio come fotografo editorialista del The New Yorker:
proprio come un altro certo signore chiamato Richard
Avedon che, come lui, prima di lui, aveva rivoluzionato
il modo di fare fotografie e ritratti.
La chiave di volta è la serie semplicemente chiamata Close-Ups, in cui i volti di personaggi ben noti come Cindy
Sherman, Marc Jacobs, Emma Watson o Mark Zuckerberg ed altri ancora, vengono ritratti utilizzando sempre
la stessa tecnica: Schoeller misura l’altezza dell’occhio
del soggetto ed organizza la lente della sua macchina fotografica allo stesso livello. Invece di un flash, utilizza la
luce morbida al neon che è anche il motivo per i caratteristici Cat-eye delle persone ritratte. La serie (1998-2005)
diventa una mostra, la sua prima personale che si svolge
nella Berlino da cui era partito presso la CWC Gallery.
A distanza di quasi dieci anni Schoeller ormai newyorkese d’adozione, dopo aver girato il mondo e le copertine
delle più affermate riviste, torna ancora una volta a Berlino nella stessa galleria con Portraits. La mostra con più
di 60 opere presenta una parte speciale dei lavori dell’artista mai esposti prima. Attori, politici, atleti, artisti e
musicisti come George Clooney, Jeff Koons, Robert De
Niro, Iggy Pop, Hillary Clinton, Christoph Waltz, Meryl
Streep o Michael Douglas ritratti senza pregiudicare la
loro umanità. Fino a qui. Tony Hawk con uno skateboard sul bancone della sua cucina, il volto di Steve Carell
coperto di nastro adesivo o il volto meraviglioso di Cate
Blanchett presentato in bianco e nero: diretto e reale.
Le atmosfere messe in scena vividamente colorate, giocano con le caratterizzazioni ed i luoghi comuni delle
celebrità. La ricchezza dei dettagli nei ritratti di grandi
dimensioni espongono la normalità e l’accessibilità dei
protagonisti, mentre le stampe in bianco e nero mostrano
la bellezza e l’umanità. In questa mostra gli spettatori
sono invitati a divertirsi, a stupirsi e a riflettere. L’approccio di Schoeller crea una diretta e pura comprensione delle personalità più intime dei soggetti, mettendo
in scena un mondo unico che contrappone aspetti iconografici e personali che fanno luce sulle celebrità con
un nuovo e un po’ esagerato punto di vista. Le opere di
Martin Schoeller sembrano voler ancora una volta rovesciare l’interpretazione tradizionale della fotografia
e del ritratto di genere dando allo spettatore una nuova
prospettiva sui protagonisti spesso intrisa di divertimento e humour nero. •
www.camerawork.de
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