Unfolding Sceneries

An object loved by some kinds of photography, like the one by Japanese Shohachi Kimura, who in 1954 gave life to The Neighborhood of Ginza, which Ed Ruscha may have looked at with a certain attention. Even artists made use of it, like Lucio Fontana who created one entirely in gold, Concetto spaziale (Spatial Concept).

Vitali’s Leporello, in an edition of 200 copies plus 50 artist’s proofs, is very well printed, and once opened it can be placed on a base as if it was a small Stonehenge. The landscapes Vitali looks at with an entomological eye, to some extent cold, the humanity, the details, the umbrellas, haven’t changed compared to those of the past. Everything is clear, the artist is a film director who observes. The scene looks already set, but it’s not. We are facing a series of stills. With the Leporello the cinematographic allure of Vitali’s work is enhanced, the viewer perfectly enters into the sequences of different worlds which nevertheless resemble one other.

In his images […] there is no trace of the ghost of Covid. No dramatic reference hovers in this work, where light leads us to observe, to know and enter those places, in which everyone plays his part in the existential pièce in a sort of crystalized temporal suspension. And yet the title, No Country for Old Men, between Cormac McCarthy and the Coen brothers, is perhaps a not so veiled reference to the widespread situation?

click here for more info about the new Leporello.