Humanity must find its wings to reach an angelic condition where everything is light and dawn.
And understanding of the world
Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz
Unlike previous works by Carla Iacono, based mainly on portraits, this project focuses on the landscape but continues the path undertaken with her previous series and the analysis of the rites of passage, starting from the transition from childhood to adolescence.
Melancholia also explores these rites of passage.
The images were taken during the trips made by the artist to visit her daughter Flora, who spent a year in Tübingen (Germany) as part of the Erasmus program.
It is therefore once again an autobiographical work, in which the journey is understood above all in its archetypal meaning, or process of individuation, and as a mechanism of detachment / return.
All this represents, while maintaining a strong autobiographical value, the rite of passage of separation.
As in the symbolic-contemplative landscapes of German Romanticism, the landscape is seen here as a metaphor of the soul, rich in contents that transcend the formal aspects of the image and represent states of mind that range from maternal pride to melancholy and the concern for our uncertain future.
The language is pictorial/fairytale like, according to the artist’s consolidated style; all views are transfigured by the filter of the imagination: light, colors, small details made in collage (a media dear to the artist in installations and illustrations), including the celestial bodies inserted in the skies of all images, which project the real into a more intimate and oneiric dimension.
As in the film by Lars Von Trier “Melancholia” from which the name of the project is borrowed, the celestial bodies stand out against the background, creating a sense of disorientation and underlining the dichotomy (between vulnerability and strength) of facing an uncertain future.
As in her previous series, Iacono does not renounce her historical-artistic quotations, representative of specific feelings or tied to the places visited during her travels; first of all to Art Cinema with references as well as to Von Trier, to Andrej Tarkovskij, Alain Resnais, Gore Verbiski, Karel Zeman; and then the art of Caspar David Friedrich and Dürer, with references to Eugenia of Leuchtenberg, a Franco-German princess to whom one of the residences depicted belonged and the silhouettes of Lotte Reiniger.
The photographic series is completed by an installation and a “Carnet de Voyage” a foldout that “unveils” some of the iconographic sources.
Melancholia is above all an act of love on the part of the artist towards her family, and at the same time a reflection on the uncertainty of the future, in the hope that everyone feels the responsibility of making a contribution to leave their children a better world, based on the respect for others and the love for culture.
Carla Iacono: Melancholia
January 26th – March 30th 2019
VisionQuesT 4rosso
Piazza Invrea 4r
16123 Genova, Italy
