moodscanner: Big Small Worlds

One of the essential things I remember about my grandmother are her so often told childhood memories of Italy in the 1930's. The trips to the countryside she made with her family, the simple village life and of course the influences of the facist regime, led by Benito Mussolini.

In 1946, she and a good friend of her emigrated to Switzerland. She was sixteen years old, didn't have a job and couldn't speak german at all. But her head was full of the most beautiful and most terrible memories.

Nevertheless, she started to work, gave birth to four children, my mother, my aunt and my two uncles, and raised them.

The works I'm gonna write about here, could have been easily created by her. When I look at these images, something touches me very deeply. Although it doesn't seem to be connected with my own past, my own life or experiences.

I think it's because they remind me of my grandmother's stories. And especially her absolute all time favorite movie. Even more than just a movie, it's a great piece of art that reflects her deepest italian roots - Amarcord by legendary director Federico Fellini.

Paolo Ventura was born in Milan, Italy in 1968, now living in New York City.

He's a photographer whose works are mostly based on model work, resulting in remarkable, unique images that reflect the past, the present, or a kind of personal visions of them. His most known series of images are Behind the Walls, Civil War, The Automaton, War Stories and War Souvenir. Ventura's latest exhibition took place in the Obsolete Gallery, Los Angeles, from February to March 2012, called The Funeral of the Anarchist.

All of Ventura's series contain a lot of (extremely accurately built) historical details, fragments, materials and so called "spirit of the past", that literally makes you able to breath the foggy air of northern italian cities. Nevertheless, authentic documentary of the (italian or european like) past doesn't seem to be the artist's goal in general. It's far more about recreating and imaging his own memories, dreams and realities which are a hybrid of italian past, european atmosphere, and also very contemporary issues like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For him, the past doesn't seem to be something just to be remembered, there's also a chance to manipulate it, reinvent it, or, as he said by himself, "you can really have fun with the past"…

What's the purpose of paintings and photographs?

In my opinion, simply to express more than thousand words ever could. Therefore, Paolo Ventura's work is a perfect example.

Similar to Alan Wolfson's work (I told about him in my previous post), Ventura is inventing worlds. Light and shadow play out in a very precise way in both artists works. To me, Ventura's images seem to be a bit more personal, mainly because there are people involved, human figures that complete and fulfill the special, strange moods.

Surprisingly, Ventura spends only a week to 10 days building the set, at an average cost of around $30. He uses foam board, cardboard, plastic and wood - basically, anything that he can get hold of. Once the set is completed, he takes Polaroids to use as a reference for minor adjustments. He then shoots with a Pentax 6x7 camera from a fixed position, using only natural daylight, preferring to capture the scene on slightly overcast days. In each image, Ventura wants to create his own "fog" and blend the artifice with the "real".

It was quiet tough to select some pictures. Actually you can't extract any of them, because every part of the series belongs to the others. But I hope you'll get a convincing impression of this remarkable artist's work.

www.paoloventura.com