We met recently artist Fabrizio Bellomo who told us about his project Ksamil in Albania. A project – that compared to his other art works that span across various modes of photographic representation with a common evocative power – is closer to a landscape documentary.
«Arriving in Ksamil, an albanian spot with resort ambitions, located on the southern coast about twenty miles from the greek border, it’s easy to figure out that something went wrong. In June 2010 many buildings (about 260) were partially destroyed. Local authorities responded to the massive dose of illegal housing, with police, bulldozers and the order to destroy the pillars of illegal constructions. The same bulldozers did not care about the dismantle of the debris. Despite the insult suffered, families (often “architects” of their own buildings) did not surrendered to distruction and carved out safe spaces inside the damaged buildings. The same happened for the local nightclub Europa. My research ranges between various and possible modes of photographic representation. After a period in which the paradox itself has been the inspiration for many ideas, in recent times (and it still continues) my interest has unconsciously started to relate to the photographic image itself (the paradox has become oxymoron). Precisely for this reason in many of my works I confronted billboards, newspapers and magazines images, or screen images captured while browsing the Web.»
«I try to see my photography as a series of actions to watch more than once, again and again, before coming to a shoot. To take or to look at someone taking a picture, then review it to see what I would do or think if I had been a spectator of others or myself during this shooting. This attitude motivates me and pushes me to the comparison with very different photographic medium. Often the question is: why do something using this / that container or this / that half (billboard, puzzle, my website)? Through the frequent questions that I ask myself, I think I moved away, enlarged and limited my plane of perception. For example, this led me to feel that on a web screen may appear and be photographed, layers that are very similar in appearance to those conceptual layers that I can find in an urban landscape. I think that the work on Ksamil has little to do with everything said so far, but I also think that all the research done in recent years has given a strong imprint on this more documentary series.
The work Italia, forza consists of two photographs. The first shot is a photograph of a poster, the second step is the photograph of the first shot set up as a poster. There is an allusive game, as a ping-pong game with and through the medium and the advertisement received.»
«Instax 200 is a series of snapshots taken with a Fujifilm Instax 200 camera. The series is composed by portraits of Bengali people living in Milan that use the Fujifilm Instax 200 camera as a work tool, looking for buyers of snapshots, roses, hats or lighters. Bengali people pose for the photos: this is the sign that the artist has let them buy their own idea. The work is archived on the web in a Google map (available here) that shows the images in the shooting locations.»
© All copyright remains with photographer Fabrizio Bellomo