After the Milanese experience, Noema Gallery continues the exhibition season in Rome.
With “Anthology of the Portrait” ,by Aldo Sardoni, the Gallery wants to propose a journey, between lights and shadows, where the works of the artist are the medium of reviving a universe full of art history into you can feel the influence of the great of the past.
In “Anthology of the portrait” will be presented some photographic series to which Sardoni has worked all long his career: “Noema” starring girls and boys who are portrayed at the entrance threshold of “understand, know, think” At the moment when they have just learned to read and write fluently; “Gold” is a trip to the Great Mine of Serbariu in Carbonia (active from 1937 to 1964) that tells how it looks today with stationary machinery and transformed into a mining museum; “Spoon River Anthology”, the richest work of Sardoni started in 2009 and still in progress, which is inspired by the homonymous anthology of the American poet Edgar Lee Masters; finally “Nihil” a work on time related to abandoned work environments, places where time has spread its patina changing its meaning and reminding us that everything is transformed.
Here the exclusive interview:
Q: Why is so important to look on the past in yours works?
A: About that I really love a Carlo levi’s quote “the future has an ancient heart” Because we are the result of our past, there is no artist who has not “copied” and taken inspiration from what already existed.
Q: What is the main theme of the exhibition, even if it is a series of different projects?
A: It is the portrait, the portrait of the true, of what is unexpected behind the veil of what you want to show the world.
Q: What is your artistic reference point ?
A: Mainly all the 600
Q: What fascinates you about Mediterranean religiosity?
A: I am an atheist, but I am extremely fascinated by the Christian narrative. I find it interesting how religion can drill people into a totally different dimension
Q: What makes your photographs current and outdated at the same time?
A: I am interested in what has been, my gaze is turned to the past also for example in the choice of using the canvas for the printing of photos, or even in choosing places where once there was a life agreement. All this is made actual by the personal interpretation of the viewer
Q: Your photos play a lot with the contrast between “light” and “shadow”, how do you find the balance?
A: I don’t find it, but I think it has greatly influenced my Baroque and Roman education. I like to build an imaginary reality
Q: Why do your photos, even if they belong to different projects, all have a similar palette?
A: The warm yellow that is very present is the yellow of the Sun of Sardinia where I live, as well as the warm tones of Spoon River are the candles that illuminate the procession that I photographed. In addition, everything is functional to create a distinctive feature that makes my photograph distinguishable
Q: According to you in your works “The human soul” emerges more in desires or fears?
A: To answer this question I will tell you about a job I did some time ago in Sardinia, where I photographed a woman from a small village in a traditional folk costume. When I arrived there was not only her but also the older women in the family who helped her to dress, and it was a bit like centuries of tradition. Centuries of tradition that had shaped the character of the woman, and that at that time meant that in her coexisted a great embarrassment to the idea of being photographed and the desire to show off In this case, as always, I have no idea what was more present, whether desire or fear, but it is precisely in this that lies the poetry and the magic of photography
Q: Can you describe “border territories” in three words?
A: Intimacy intimacy intimacy. Because by ” border territories ” we mean everything that is constantly moving in our lives. As an artist the stimulated aspect becomes precisely that of embarking on a journey into the “boundaries”/ limits together with my subjects, creating precisely a particular intimacy that allows me to bring out that something unique
Q: Why do children of the Noema series all have the garment covered?
A: Because they were taken during a procession, and what was really nice was to decontextualize those children from the absolutely immersive context in which they were
Q: How does your artistic research develop ?
A: Everything comes from chance, there is always something irrational that captures me and from there there there is a subsequent development and construction
