Sixteen cells of the district prison of Bibbiena, in the province of Arezzo, nineteenth-century structure re-functionalized and transformed into a space for creativity. This is the unprecedented setting in which Giovanni Gastel, the most important Italian fashion photographer, exhibits from 13 June to 6 September: on the occasion of the tenth birthday of CIFA, the Italian Center for Author Photography which is based in the former prisons of the Tuscan city.
To be exposed 150 polaroids in 20×25 format, unique pieces made in the last thirty years of activity of guest, evidence of his constant research in the field of image communication. In fact, each shot belongs to historic advertising campaigns for luxury, fashion and cosmetics brands; projects conducted with originality and an irresistible curiosity towards always different formal and aesthetic solutions.
The playful, unconventional and irreverent spirit of the artist emerges with engaging vitality right from the title of the exhibition itself, curated by Giovanna Calvenzi and Claudio Pastrone: “The poetic irony of Giovanni Gastel”. The Milanese photographer assembles or disarticulates shapes and colors, textures and settings, putting himself to the test with real "analogue special effects", which have always allowed him to express his inventiveness to the fullest.
Accompanying the exhibition, conceived as an immediate instant show, is a monographic volume from the FIAF Great Authors of Contemporary Photography series which recounts the artist's creative process through 80 works and the words of Gastel and Calvenzi themselves.
Bibbiena (AR) | From June 13th to September 6th
The poetic irony of Giovanni Gastel
edited by Giovanna Calvenzi and Claudio Pastrone
CIFA – Via delle Monache, 2
Info: www.seigradi.com
