After the first presentation of Mock-up and of the video at the Italian Institute of Design in Milan, Marco Bolognesi speaks about his last work that is leaving for an international tour in galleries and exhibition spaces.
Propaganda Republic retrieves an old guru of the Italian science-fiction, Margheriti. What did you drive toward him?
I’ve ever loved and I love science-fiction and my meetness with this big pioneer of this gender – Antonio Margheriti – has been naturally. The research of the extent in which the Italian culture contributed to the cinema’s story and particularly science-fiction is very important for me.
I refer to film directors that built a vein, more or less interesting, that promoted our cinema with La morte viene dello spazio (The death comes from espace) of 1958 directed by Paolo Heusch (his first science-fiction film) with scenography by Mario Bava who realised with Riccardo Freda Caltiki il mostro immortale (Caltiki the immortal monster) a Italian remake of the original of Blob Mortale and in 1965 Terrore dallo spazio (Terror from the space) an extraordinary film that gave inspiration to Ridley Scott for its Alien .
And the great and pioneristic cinema of Antonio Margheriti at the beginning with Space men, then with Il pianeta degli uomini spenti (The planet of the damped men) and with a cycle of very interesting science-fiction films.
Mock-Up puts together more “modern” parts (the last generation animations) and “older” one (Margheriti’s film, the spaceship model). Why this mix of opposite elements?
From 1992, when I began my artistic career, my favourite expressive mean and file rouge of my research is collage.
Catching old and new elements to mix them produces a de-contextualization aimed to transformation that is a creation, something new. This is a common element in the postmodern culture that bases its originality in the fusion of genders and styles.
Why did you use the spaceship as display?
The spaceship is a mock-up, like the prototypes used in publicity to reproduce an original item.
It’s re-construction, artificiality, control on vision.
In the same way, my Skeleton Arcadia attracts the audience making it actor of the installation, induces it to search the truth inside that that in the best propaganda’s action is a “war spaceship that fights to enforce peace and democracy”.
In the spaceship Arcadia – beginning from its name – there are a lot of call-backs to great Japanese science-fiction and animation directors, as Leiji Matsumoto, author of Capitan Harlock and Starblazers. It’s a tribute?
Sure, I’m a great fan of Matsumoto, his style and his characters are very appealing for me.
What do you think about these authors? In Italy they are often considered “for children only”.
We have an old cultural problem that induces to think that cartoons are only for children because they are near to tales.
This culture pushes us to think that the Walt Disney story is the “right” cartoon to propose to our children, and we do not consider how much dangerous allegories are included in the tales of Hans Christian Andersen.
The video develops in Bomar Universe. However, in this thirteen’s video we se lot of call-backs to the “Earth” actuality, to the manner to diffuse the news, to the manner of action of the media. Today like 70 years ago. What do you want to tell with this comparison?
We developed the text based on studies of popular and populist speeches of at least ten dictators form the thirteen’s to nowadays and we discovered an incredible analogousness. They magnify the regime’s power that often expresses itself in a form of popular republic.
You are one of the protagonists of Invideo 2011. It’s important for you? It’s more a conclusion of a path or a birth of a new phase? Are you already thinking about new projects? Will they always live in Bomar Universe? Will they have a knot with Reggio?
I’m been honoured of taking part to the festival Invideo but I think that projects are a bridge of an interior and philosophic path that develops in the time.
I think that in future I’ll develop more videos because I want to animate my universe, to give a form to what remained blocked in my photos.
Reggio is my town now and therefore it is involved every day since two years in my life and in my projects.
A new Bomar Universe’s domino is actually being presented to the great public in an international framework. The intense activity of these days brought Bolognesi to Rome where he met one of the professionals that participate to this new project: Davide Masi.
Here, we can read the interview with Davide Masi in the Sky’s studios, where he explains his work and his collaboration with Bolognesi.
Who is Davide Masi?
I’m a special effects technician, I began to work in 1985 collaborating with cinematographic, TV and publicity projects and making all that is part of the old special effects’ tradition, i.e. all that is in front of the cine camera: mechanical dolls, spaceships, models, miniatures and so on. Actually I’m working to the realization of the “Sgommati”, the puppets of the satirical program broadcasted by Sky. I realize these puppets.
How met you Bolognesi and how did your collaboration begin?
I met Marco on the set of productions in which we worked together, chatting we began to know each other and so the idea of the collaboration in the new project of Marco began to grow.
In which consists your collaboration?
I build physically the spaceships models fitting them to the concept of Bomar Universe.
To what is the realization of the models inspired to?
For the work of Marco I’m inspired to the cyberpunk imaginary but my models have the aftertaste of the Italian science-fiction cinema of the seventies. What’s your relationship with the science-fiction?
I’m always been interested to science-fiction and being a model maker this is a world to which I’m ever been bound. So it has not been difficult for me and Marco to be on the same wavelength.
The new project with Bolognesi is a tribute to the Italian director Margheriti, you worked together with him it’s true?
Yes, exactly. I knew Margheriti in 1986 during the realization of a RAI production: I was the props maker and so I worked directly with him, he was the director of the series, a futurity version of The Isle of the Treasure.
Marco Bolognesi: Bomar Universe is an expanding artistic project, each of my project is a domino of this global work. In other words, Bomar Universe is the living space of my art, the universe in which I fertilize my artistic creation.
In the Bomar Universe the heroes are cyborg women or post-human women, where draw you the inspiration from?
M.B.: As I told previously, my cyborgs begin with the science-fiction genesis. That of the twenties, the cybernetic organism, a creature that interlaces the human body and the machine body. The body invasion by technology is not limited to the coexistence of artificial means and natural tissues. In the cyborg the exteriorisation process is so extended to became overturned and the majority of our watching-filters becomes senseless. If we adopt a different perspective of the dichotomy natural/artificial we have to discuss the centrality of the human body as biological data produced by the physic interaction with the reality. My women are “natural cyborgs” and are proud of being it. In this way, the human genre can be changed, improved, adapted to the exigencies of the social life, with esthetical surgery or genetic-engineering.
In this universe the human body is hybrid, how do you define it?
M.B.: the body is only a case. Since the nineteen, Orlan speaks about contamination between body and new technologies. If we depart from the idea that “body is obsolete” the mutant-artist takes us in the operatory room to see the technological metamorphosis. The artist modified his face to put together the most known feminine faces of the story of the art, to represent the loss and the regain of his identity, in name of the art. I like to think that the genetic mutation is a stabile and heritable modification in the genomic nucleotide sequence. Nothing has a contest no more and we give a new semantic perspective to all.
Are there particular books that have inspired you in your work?
Marco Bolognesi: ’1984′ is a book that has had a strong influence on my work, because of the control trip that’s presented. On the one hand, the concepts of IngSoc fascinate me, the english socialist ideology that’s based on this all-seeing Big Brother’s presence. I think that the slogan “Ignorance is Strength, war is peace, freedom is slavery” is very relevant today. On the other hand, the idea that we are small elements within a greater design and that the reality that we live is fictional are fundamental to my view of science fiction. We could mention some well-known films like the Matrix trilogy or Total Recall or even Peter Weir’s Truman Show.
Each one of these, in their own way, speak of the creation of completely unreal worlds.
So what is Reality then?
M.B. The word reality is a myriad of enormous compromises, indispensible to individuals for living together. Individuals could not exist in the way that they do, had they not created the idea and the concept of reality.
So?
M.B. So reality is an invention. A concept created and built in the lab.
Let’s go back to Orwell’s 1984. Do you think that this book has connections with the lives of all of us?
M.B.: In IngSoc books were re-written and cleansed of all content that wasn’t directly in line with the official ideas of the movement; one could almost risk comparing this with what monk scribes did with some of the most important books in our culture, in our history.
In IngSoc the contradictions within the party were systematically deconstructed, and so the story, the history stopped existing …
I can see parallels with everyday information, news that is produced ‘ad hoc’ just to reinforce and control, to create a pseudo-reality that works for the powers that be. In particular, I refer to two important events that are part of our recent history: Firstly, the Iraq war, referring to the weapons of mass destruction that were never found and, more recently, in the war in Libya. Of this war Lucio Caracciolo, director of Limes, an Italian geopolitical magazine, declared, “the presentation of reality in those terms [referring to false news regarding the numbers of victims in the first stages of the conflict]was a planned operation by Al Jazeera and other media that re-presented everything that was being reported on Arab satellite television without any critical criteria at all”.
Exactly like IngSoc, that intended for all men to fall into line and cancel unsavoury facts regarding the party … pretty relevant stuff to my mind!
At this point, I’m inclined to think that we are programmable through conscious and subconscious forms of control coming from elements created by external events.
Dopo la pubblicazione del libro “Protocollo” in collaborazione con Carlo Lucarelli, il fotografo di fama internazionale, Marco Bolognesi, ha scelto Reggio Emilia per i nuovi scatti che verranno utilizzati nel sequel del libro.
Nato a Bologna, londinese d’adozione, Marco Bolognesi è un artista contemporaneo importante, conosciuto e riconoscibile per i suoi ritratti di donna, che colpiscono per originalità ed emozioni.
In visita a Reggio Emilia, l’artista è stato ospite di Radio Rumore e durante la puntata de “Il Divano non Vincerà” ha chiacchierato con noi sul suo lavoro e i progetti futuri.
Ci ha anche annunciato un interessante workshop, che avrà luogo il 15 e 16 maggio presso uno studio fotografico reggiano, assolutamente da non perdere.
Vi consigliamo di ascoltare la piacevole intervista che trovate di seguito, durante la quale sono emersi particolari molto interessanti di questo artista e della sua attività.
Chicago, June 2009–Italian born, currently working and residing in London, multi-media artist and filmmaker, Marco Bolognesi is a refined contemporary cultural author whose creative vision seamlessly fuses together symbolic artifacts of our past, present and future. Over the past 10 years Bolognesi’s work has been presented in many galleries, museums and festivals throughout Europe. His exhibitions and films such as Black Hole continue to be well received alike by critics, the art market and public. With his unique approach towards his subjects and innovative interpretation of contemporary society, Bolognesi comfortably takes a step closer to establishing himself as a highly influential international talent.
After the ART Chicago Fair where Bolognesi exhibited in the Olyvia Oriental Gallery, I had the privilege to catch up with the artist and his manager, Tiziana Silvestre, at the ultra chic Affina Hotel’s 26th Floor C-View Lounge that boasts panoramic views of Chicago’s magnificent cityscape. As we drank Coca-Cola and nibbled on goldfish snacks, we had an exhilarating and fascinating conversation about Italian politics, inspiration in London, pop culture, cyberpunk and Bolognesi’s belief tthat “the future is female.”
The following is a continuation from my meeting of dialogue with the artist and filmmaker, Marco Bolognesi…
Anna C Butler: Many may think that Italy is abundant in creative and artistic inspiration. However, nine years ago you made the choice to move to London. Why did you leave Italy?
Marco Bolognesi: I left Italy for various reasons. Some of these were personal and some professional. I felt that there was no space for me in Italy. I felt it was impossible to express to my ideas there and I didn’t feel very well. I moved where I had to go, which was London. For me, London has been an important artistic experience where I have been exposed to a lot references. Honestly, I find London to be the capital of the world and very cosmopolitan. In London, I’ve found a lot of links to my ideas in sci-fi and fashion. I found a lot of people interested in this world. I think, okay this is my world… I am not sick; I am normal.
ACB: What about London is it that you find so fruitful? How does London’s “research possibilities” fulfill your needs of expression?
MB: It is hard to say what exactly is fruitful, because when I first moved to London I found it very difficult to live in a city that is so big and competitive. For this reason, I ended up taking a lot of various and different jobs just for money. However, this gave me the opportunity to experience the many facets of London culture. So far, I believe that the spark overall has been different than life in Italy and of a different previous life.
ACB: How does being a multi-media artist free your creative nature?
MB: I started to use the photo camera because my idea is to stop life. The life or world that I express isn’t just that I look out of the window. It is a world that exists around me and is complicated to express. A universe of life and other life, together build an imaginary world with layers that is in theory real life. Photography and video provide outlets for me to say different things in different ways.
ACB: Your work provides a cohesive landscape for a collage of pop and contemporary cultural artifacts. What and who are some of your inspirational references?
MB: I started to find this interesting when I studied surrealist and Dadaist art. In particular I find the photocollage work of Max Ernst, André Breton and George Hugnet very interesting. After this, I find ideas from pop art and some artists like, Andy Warhol. After this I combined my passion for comics, illustration, graffiti, and a lot of other things about pop culture to create my artistic approach to collage. For me it is always complicated to isolate points of references, because there are a million things I see and I am constantly changing myself, and my mind about my artistic world.
ACB: Comics? Which ones do you follow?
MB: Yes, I have big collection of comics and normally I follow the superheroes like X-Men, Spiderman, Batman, Captain America and also European comics like Druna, by Serpieri, Cage by Davem Mckeane and Valentina by Guido Crepax. Maybe in the future I would like to draw my own personal Comics novel like Stray Toasters, by Bill Sienkiewicz.
ACB: You mentioned illustration and graffiti. What about Anime?
MB: Anime, anime every day for at least the last 29 years! I like so much the character Kenshiro who is based on the actor and martial arts legend Bruce Lee, my idol. The character Rochatansky from the amazing Mad Max series is definitely a stand out reference. Another of one of my idols is Go Nogai, a very famous illustrated version of Devil man. Also I love Mazinga Z and UFO Robot.
ACB: In your Babylon Federation series there are apparent elements of fetishism and bondage and in your book Dark Star the series is described by Alberto Abruzzese as an embodiment of total depravation. When creating the Babylon Federation concept, was this ideal intentional?
MB: I think we should take a step back here…Abbruzzese is an important and very famous critic that spoke of “total depravation” as a critical element. Abbruzzese also says, “[a] woman’s body harbors power.” This is his personal perspective on the issue. In reference to my Babylon Federation project, I would like to say that it is about war and power with an erotic link. My work aims to discuss the provocative nature of war and how it is possible to invade another country just for a fake reason. I am very critical about international political powers that use war as a means of total depravation and use the media as advertising and personal gain. My characters in Babylon Federation remember this status of depravation. They are erotic and at the same time, tragic…
ACB: In many of your pieces your female subjects are adorned with inspired fashion of fetishism and bondage and are often masked. How does this composition make the female a “dominant force of nature?”
MB: The point of this concept about nature has been developed in my Woodland series. Here I created a world of beings that are genetically modified with an alternate world, like in Woodland. The composition is influenced by art of the artist, Enrico Buy, who used little things like buttons, zippers and fabric to decorate his characters. In the same way I used elements from fashion, Fetish and Sadomasochism. The point here is that my women are beings that come out of a dream.
ACB: How do you feel about your work being compared to the cyberpunk aesthetic?
MB: The cyberpunk aesthetic is very broad and for this reason I am happy to enter in this big world. Plus, I have a lot of references from the sci-fi genre in film, novel comics and toys. With the progression of artificial intelligence, I believe the cyborg exists now this world. And people becoming half man and half machine currently exists. This is only the beginning. The future is now. For this, I feel I’ve entered into cyborgpunk, but my world that I created anyway is different from the sci-fi worlds of William Gibson and Isaac Asimov.
ACB: Please describe your world where you say, “the future is female.”
MB: I say the future is female for different and obvious reasons. The first, for instance is that in the planet there are more females that males. Secondly, scientific research states that females are the stronger force of the human species. Maybe, the future is female because the man’s instinct is too weak since he is accustomed to simply using only muscle as a source of power. I think the female is more flexible and at the same time more contemporary. And from the female it is possible to see different ideas of society.
Another question I have been asked is ‘But Are you man?’ Yes I am, but I believe in reincarnation. For this reason my experience like a man is in this life and it is a “crossing.”
Marco Bolognesi is a multi-faceted artist who creates new work through the mediums of FILM, photography, Illustration, drawing and painting. Bolognesi will be creating NEW work and interacting with our film makers at Renderyard’s Online Residency. But first, let’s find out a bit more about Marco’s fascinating work and world.
Render – How has your film making work developed from your first films to your most recent film work?
Marco – I am not one to fit with labels or to follow any genres, because I believe that I am creating my own genre. I am also quite ambitious and I like the challenge of this way of working. In America when I showed my last short film and people started talking about by style as “sci-fi spaghetti Bolognesi”. I thought this was cool.
My approach is to mix genres. In the making of my first two videos (Justice and Truth and The Party of the Silence), I had lots of constraints in the kinds of images that I could use and what I was able to speak about but I tried anyway to leave my mark.
I started mixing video art and documentary because I believe that an artist must find new ways of expression even if it is a review of something that has happened, to seek new ways of discussing a particular topic. This debate is the basis of life and democracy.
If we want a new democratic world we must have the courage to discuss and find new ways of expression. I have always watched with great interest the aesthetics of the video art’s world even if I have a bigger interest in the story. It doesn’t matter if the story is about a cyborg or two flowers, it is important that the story is readily available to the public and not just a thing that is available for a select few.
Render – In 2008 you filmed Black Hole, a film released in parallel with your sci-fi photography exhibition Dark Star, which both defined a very particular futuristic sci-fi visual style. Can you briefly describe your own view of this world of hybrids and cyborgs that you portrait in Black Hole?
Marco – A cyborg is a cybernetic organism and it is not a far away concept. For me the concept machine and human already exists when we have a person with a pacemaker or when there are athletes like Oscar Pistorius which runs with carbon prosthetic. These people are already cyborgs, this is not sci-fi it is in the present.
In Black Hole I have begun to develop a story that I wish to broaden into my first feature film. The idea is that of a computer that incorporates the crew on the ship. It is a concept different from Hal9000 in 2001 Space Odyssey; my computer is a fusion between Richard the communication officer on the spaceship; is the fusion of the machine and the human to create a new identity, in order to achieve a “reset” of his human state; Starting afresh from its origins in the hope of building a different world.
Dark Star is my first publication that collects all my photographic work between 2002 and 2008. In this period I have developed several projects about my view on science fiction. Science fiction for me is a way to deal with and talk about contemporary and current issues such as GMOs or the relationship between machine and man.
In ‘Cyborg Faces’ for example, I investigated the future of the human being. What may our horizons be now that we are immersed in, and so utterly dependent upon, technology? These re-designed faces remain human and beautiful and yet they are dramatically transformed by mechanical and technological components. And these are not merely piercings or adornments, circuit boards and computer chips now literally becoming part of the body. They are the post-human.
Render – Technology, science fiction and fantasy are an important part of your work how do you combine all this in the process of creating your own visuals?
Marco -There are no recipes, as a child I grew up with Dungeons & dragons, warhammer and warhammer 40.000 without mentioning the comic book or science fiction films. I believe that all those things I was surrounded by and kept on looking at have created my own imagery. It is as if I am a shaman who talks to his spirits.
Render – You have worked with great figures of the fashion world such as Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Kei Kagami and Dolce & Gabbana, what role has fashion had within the creation of your work?
Marco – Fashion fascinates me for the details of his research for the glamour. Anyway for me fashion is an art from which I take inspiration and nothing more. I love collaboration: is an energy exchange, I will continue to do collaborations.
Render – Is Bolognesi’s work influenced by modern advertising with relevance to visual areas created by people such as Nick Night and the digital computer generated imagery used within the advertising and cinema industry? What influences do you see in your own work?
Marco – I am very familiar with Nick Night’s work however in my work I don’t use digital computer generated imagery. My portraits are of real women and objects are either glued to the face or are additional prosthetic attachments.
Certainly I love cinema especially Hollywood special effects and the advertising is great for my reference, I also love looking for things in a seemingly distant world with which I then interact through my work. Elements of a huge influence for me are the world of toy and action figures and also soldiers or fantasy and sci-fi miniatures. I also love the work of Chris Burdett or the work of the Chapman brothers.
Render – The style of your work brings to mind references such as HR Giger and David Lynch how has these and other artists and directors influenced your work?
Marco – They are two artists of enormous talent. Each of them gave me much inspiration and are artists that I am still discovering.
I love Peter Greenaway too and his infinite facets. My interest lies in seeing how an artist has’
approached the movie and how he has built his imagination and his style. It is in this same way that I see the director Shinya Tsukamoto. It is vital for me to see how he developed his poetry and especially the way he has led a film like Tetsuo.
Render – Bolognesi’s work goes beyond the visual and seems to pick up influences from science fiction authors such as William Gibson and Ian Banks, what is your interest in science fiction?
Marco – As I have already said science fiction is a place where they display a futuristic world.
The science fiction that I love is a metaphor for the future to talk about the present
Render – How has your been influenced by Cyber Culture and Cyber Punk?
Marco – In a recent interview with Anna C. Butler I covered a similar subject.
I am very influenced by Cyberpunk and the cyber culture but it is a very broad culture and nowadays it permeates a lot of what surrounds us. As with all my influences I let them sink in and then I metabolize them.
Render – Your work also breaths multi-culturalism, what is the relationship between your work and Asian aesthetics?
Marco – The Asian aesthetic influences in my life started back in the 80′s because’ in Italy in the 80s began ‘the huge invasion of Japanese Anime’. The Asian influence in my work is more about the visual aspect and less about a narrative structure.
Oriental films and anime are full of cyborg and robot influences and there is a very strong contrast in the relationship between humans and the machine. The duality of science and technology as a big help for humanity on one side and also as a means of destruction in times of war is something that fascinates me.
Two films are basic influences of mine. The Korean filmmaker Byung-Chun Min in Natural City and the Japanese filmmaker Kazuaki Kiriya in Casshern where both explore the relationship between androids and the human race within the setting of a chaotic and hyper-technological future in which man has to fight in order to preserve the capacities that make up human nature.
Render – What kind of subjects and themes would you like to explore next as a filmmaker?
Marco – In this moment I am working on different projects: in one of them I am exploring seven short films that deal with the media. Events occur around the theme of the media’s power, especially television. I was inspired by a TV journalist looking for stories that may be of interest to the public precisely like the character of Kika by Almodovar.
I will create 7 grotesque stories that will cross with each other, then I’m also working on production of a film made of trash cans of old films mixed with what I am going to shoot, inspired by the assembly of Ejzenstejn.
Render – Do you feel is important that artists and film makers promote and interact with digital film networks such as Renderyard?
I believe that Artists and filmmakers must and can have a huge opportunity to work together to realize joint projects or personal. In the same way filmmakers and film artists should find points of union and stop working alone on their own and put their energies together. A network such as Renderyard must be a source of ideas and projects that are born together through interaction and discussion.
Marco Bolognesi è un giovane artista che vive e lavora a Londra. Nei suoi lavori usa la fotografia in modo creativo, abbinandola ad altre tecniche come pittura e collage, e ne ribalta i cliché di genere.
La sua è una formazione prevalentemente pittorica ma da sempre è stato attirato dalle potenzialità dello scatto e dalla commistione tra immagini siano esse sulla tela che sulla carta fotografica.
Bolognesi, che è anche un filmaker, espone le sue opere in tutto il mondo da Roma a New York e nei suoi interessanti lavori ama “giocare” con il corpo femminile creando effetti a volte stranianti ma di forte impatto visivo.
Come è cominciato il suo amore per la fotografia e come si è trasformato in una professione?
Ho iniziato a lavorare con la macchina fotografica alla Scuola D’Arte di Bologna , mi piaceva poter lavorare su diversi livelli e quindi usavo le fotografie e la pittura in grandi quadri di collage dove il confine tra un mezzo e l’altro era sempre più labile. Il mezzo fotografico é per me un modo per raccogliere immagini, “still” di storie da raccontare e lo affianco al video e alle istallazioni. Nel 2000 ho passato tre anni a Cinecittà a lavorare come assistente regista e da lì un amico mi ha suggerito di fare delle fotografia una professione. Ho quindi fatto l’assistente per vari fotografi. Ma l’amore per l’arte è stato più forte e quindi ho scelto di continuare a lavorare in quel campo. Non mi occupo di fotografia commerciale ma sono un artista che usa la macchina fotografica.
Come mai ha scelto Londra per vivere e lavorare?
Londra è la metropoli del futuro. Si fanno passi avanti in tutti I campi, dalla architettura alla letteratura.Ci sono enormi stimoli anche solo a camminare per la strada. Per quello che poi riguarda l’arte è impossibile da confrontare con l’Italia. Londra è unica e multietnica, è impagabile.
Quale pensa sia il maggiore ostacolo che un giovane fotografo alle prime armi incontra in Italia?
Onestamente non avendo mai fatto esclusivamente il fotografo non saprei dire. Ma mi ritengo un giovane artista e credo che alcune cose valgono per tutti. In Italia ci sono poche scuole che ti insegnino il lavoro e per quello che poi riguarda la fotografia ce ne sono alcune che sono dei veri furti. Non si insegna che cos’e’ fare il fotografo come professione che è ben diverso dal fare solo delle belle fotografie. Ormai vivo all’estero da tanti anni e seguo l’Italia da lontano e devo dire che l’impressione che ne percepisco è che l’Italia è piuttosto ferma. Cosa c’è di peggio per un giovane?
Le sue foto prendono spunto dal patinato mondo della moda ma lo sovvertono e ne trasformano i canoni: la sua è una critica a quel mondo o semplicemente uno spunto artistico?
Woodland è il mio unico progetto legato alla moda in un qualche modo ed è stato eseguito tra il 2002 e il 2006 quando già vivevo a Londra. Prima lavoravo con la fotografia, vedi altri miei lavori come Visioni e Levels e poi Blind Eyes, ma non necessariamente con la moda. Il progetto di Woodland è stato creato apposta per l’Istituto di Cultura Italiano a Londra che voleva un progetto artistico da eseguire in collaborazione con stilisti inglesi e italiani e da esporre poi durante la London Fashion Week. La moda è un linguaggio e io l’ho utilizzato per parlare del tema centrale di Woodland che erano gli organismi geneticamente modificati. Ho quindi usato la moda e i suoi canoni per costruire un mondo nuovo, geneticamente modificato. L’idea era che la moda tende a costruire, o vorrebbe aiutarti a costruire, un’immagine perfetta dell’essere umano così come tutti i lavori e gli studi sugli organismi geneticamente modificati tendono a guardare verso il perfettibile. Ecco perchè mettere insieme i due linguaggi.
A quale grande fotografo si sente artisticamente più vicino?
Non mi sento vicino artisticamente a nessun fotografo in particolare. Mi piace Thomas Ruuf, ma poi mi fanno impazzire anche tantissimo Pierre&Giles , Saudek David Bayley , Sarah Moon … Amo cibarbi di immagini tra le più disparate.
Provi a definire il suo modo di fotografare con tre aggettivi…
Non sono tre aggettivi ma la mia fotografia è intrisa di: Sensualità, Equilibrio, Ossessione del dettaglio.
These images read like direct transcripts of Italian artist Marco Bolognesi’s dreams. It is the infinite woodland of his subconcious, the unnatural bound to the natural. Result? A Midsummer Night’s Dream meets Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity.
Here then, is a pressure cooker of ideas – a visual manifesto – personal and universal.
These are not models, but natural women made extraordinary. His siren’s scream and hum with nature’s power, taking the stuff around them to exaggerate their beauty and harness your attention.
They, like Bolognesi himself, have fled the cities without imagination, and have emerged from the darkness to shine a tempting light, leading you back into the bosom of the woods: home.
This home serves as stage for our showgirls to bump and grind showcasing their latest finery, a finery concocted by some of the most exotic names in international fashion today (Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, and Kei Kagami amongst others.) Here is not one, but many, Sweet Charity’s silently mouthing the immortal words “Hey Big Spender, spend a little time with me, I could show you a good time.”
Bolognesi has toured extensively with his troupe, appearing at the Monza Young Artist Biennale in 2005 featuring thirty of the most important young artists. The success of the Woodland pictures at Monza gained Bolognesi a place at Artissima in Turin later that year.
More touring followed, and fresh from their triumphs at the Paolo Nanni Gallery and the Art Fair in Bologna with Franco Riccardo, 2006 sees the girls being immortalised here in print.
Lazy critics will dismiss Bolognesi’s pictures as female objectification, but to do so is missing so much. There is, indeed, arrogance to the very act of creating a body of work around male fantasy, and this is an impression that Bolognesi himself makes no effort to contradict.
Viewed as a whole, Woodland is a confession on behalf of all of us who have witnessed our own sexual imaginations become skewed by the visual mantras of our age.
This woodland is desire. Pick the flowers, or trample underfoot. The choice is yours.
