Mario Giacomelli. Under the skin of reality is a book about Giacomelli’s methodological approach to photography.
Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli’s critical text embeds Giacomelli’s oeuvre in a biographical context to expose the fusion of life and art across his practice.
As part of his methodological approach to photography, Giacomelli took on the role of performer, acting within the realm of the Informal: Giacomelli uncoils a chain of meanings, each one linked to the next. He creates a kind of hall of mirrors: it is here that he envisions a new language, structured as an eternal cycle of return. Giacomelli’s artistic gestuality gives form to space. His photographs come ‘alive,’ and speak with the voice of their creator.
Giacomelli spent his whole life immersing his imagination in the reality he was photographing. He used photography as a kind of language for his unconscious. It wasn’t until the end of his artistic and existential journey that he became a performer, and physically entered the frame of the photograph. He loads all of his self-expression into a single, monumental image – his oeuvre – which is caught in flux, and made up of around fifty thousand photographs taken across the course of his life.
This book focuses on Giacomelli’s latter years. In this final period of work, Giacomellli essentialised his approach, and brought his practice full circle. Giacomelli’s photographic series from the 1980s and 1990s are published here for the first time.
In 2015, the English edition Mario Giacomelli. Under the Skin of Reality was published by Schilt Publishing in Amsterdam, alongside the German edition Mario Giacomelli. Hinter dem Schleier der Realität, published by Till Schaap Edition in Bern.
‘I’m interested in a reality which breathes, which is in continuous motion. When I photograph something, it assumes its meaning once it’s been separated from its primary intention and recontextualised in a determined space of perception, where everything becomes part of this new flux.’
(Mario Giacomelli, notes, 1990s).
‘Language becomes the environment in which the image breathes. The image is a product of an unknown interior force exploding into space. I alter reality in order to give sense to the subject. I deconstruct and reconstruct in order to make meaning.’
(Mario Giacomelli, notes, 1990s).
- Hardcover: 168 pages
Publisher: 24 Hours Culture (first edition 15 December 2011)
Language: Italian
Texts by Achille Bonito Oliva, Marina Itolli, Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli
- Second edition:
Hardcover: 168 pages
Publisher: Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam (2015)
Language: English
- Third edition:
Hardcover: 168 pages
Publisher:Till Schaap Edition, Bern (2015)
Language: German
Scontro frontale con la realtà per uno sdoppiamento, dove si consuma il linguaggio e la realtà forma e fantasia dove i flussi della immaginazione si allargano in una ispirazione. Il linguaggio diventa l'ambiente entro cui l'immagine respira. Ho una visione dei tempi ove mi sento dentro, ho la certezza della mia incertezza c'è come uno smarrimento L'immagine è un prodotto di una forza interiore senza volto che esplode dentro lo spazio. Imprevedibilità Spostare la realtà per dare un senso al soggetto Cambio la realtà per dare un senso al soggetto. Scompongo e ricompongo per significare
