Questo ricordo lo vorrei raccontare. Mario Giacomelli

“Questo ricordo lo vorrei raccontare” (2000) is a sort of “testament” that Mario Giacomelli leaves us. It is the last photographic series created by the artist before his death, which occurred in the same year, and never before in this work has the feeling of photography as an “expression of interiority,” as a “story,” as an “inner journey,” “in vertigo and bewilderment”—to use the words that Giacomelli always used to describe his art over fifty years of production—been so clear.

The book focuses on Mario Giacomelli’s final photographic series, structured following the artist’s creative flow: dreamlike, poetic, abstract. Thirty-seven works (selected from the hundred or so pieces that make up the series) follow one another, eluding definition despite their tangible presence (the book’s layout gives the right rhythm and captures the atmosphere and meaning of the series). The parade of images levitating and emerging from the white background is enriched by the presence of documentary material that allows the reader to delve into the nuances of Giacomelli’s discourse. Four critical texts address the theme of life and death, powerfully conveying Mario Giacomelli’s character and thought. The publication concludes with one hundred and forty-four invaluable contact sheets and some previously unpublished backstage photos, opening up a world of symbols and ritual gestures to the viewer, capturing the continuous motion of the artist in space as he inhabits his imagination through photography.

Curated by Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli and Milo Montelli. Texts by Davide Rondoni, Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli, Francesco Zanot, Brad Feuerhelm.