It rusts 2

2015

Collages

70 x 100 cm | 24 x 15 cm | 15 x 20 cm

These collages are closely connected to the precedent work “It rusts”. I am fascinated by photography as a narrative form and in particular by early photography because of the need for inventions and stratagems to deal with the difficulties of technique. Among these, the backdrops, large hand-painted sheets depicting different landscapes. To our eyes, backdrops are fake, but they also represent places with a narrative function. The choice of a given backdrop could take on a meaning in terms of possibility and desire. Starting from some images of emigrants from Malonno, I cut and isolated the characters from the place where the picture was taken and I replaced them, painting exotic backdrops for them. I imagined that those who stayed behind and saw the others leaving, would fantasize over their beloved ones far away and in unknown lands. These collages embody their fantasies. Exoticism is a direct consequence of big migrations but it is related with the gaze of those who didn’t not move.