From 20th April 2024 at 6.00 p.m .we are pleased to present the personal exhibition of STEFANO TASSI, entitled “OF EARTH AND CONCRETE” .
It will be possible to visit the exhibition either by appointment by calling the number 338 – 4520080 and during the normal opening hours of the Gallery.
“A vision unfolds, a juxtaposition, a journey within a journey. On one side, we have the tranquil lowlands (‘Bassa’), captured by Zavattini and Ghirri, the same places that witnessed the toil of labourers reclaiming it from the waters with their wheelbarrows, the same places that bloom with the vibrant hues of scorching summers and golden wheat, and shroud themselves in the greys of the mists. On the other, we have the concrete jungle, the American metropolis, a New York ablaze with blinding lights, awash with intense, suffocating shades of red and grey.
Woody Allen’s Manhattan stands in stark contrast to the verdant floodplains of the great river Po; the solitary poplar groves, standing tall amidst nothingness, seem to challenge the towering buildings of the City. At times, these morph into romantic grey landscapes on the shores of Coney Island, mirroring the opaque whites and blues of the floodplains. Beaches punctuated by silence, by the cries of seagulls, and by the flamboyant colours of the carnival.
A comparison of disparate, distant colours and landscapes, each deeply ingrained in the psyche of their respective inhabitants, yet surprisingly unified by the hues altered through the process of anaemic photography, employing aged photographic paper. The paint applied to render the land more ‘earthly’, and the concrete, emblematic of the urbanised landscape of the metropolis.
Perhaps, it is an allusion to the potent emotional resonance of the ‘small’ civilisation, concealed behind the seemingly desolate architecture or the trees now assimilated into the landscape. Or perhaps, it is a call for unity and cooperation among all living beings, imperative to halt the relentless march towards destruction and decay to which we, the ‘little people’, seem destined.”
Stefano Tasssi
