“SCENOGRAPHIES”

“In cities there are "secret" places from which, if reached, it is possible to observe an arrangement of urban space that is, for the inhabitants themselves, "unreal”.

I believe this is precisely the ability of the photographer: to know intimately the places from which to observe a hidden reality.

Admiring the following photographic work, I perceived the author's desire to compare the architectural "palimpsest" of the city of Milan with the idea of "scenography." I thought, in particular, of the work of Sebastiano Serlio. There is no doubt that he with the three engravings of "scenographies" (satire, comedy and tragedy) from the "Five Books of Architecture," illustrates ideally "fake" cities. The ambiguity perceived by these representations arises from the predictable overlapping of building facades, arranged in a descending order toward an unrealistically central vanishing point. There is a feeling of being forced to look, without alternative, in a precise direction, the only one possible to visualize the infinite depth of the (three-dimensional) urban street printed on an essentially flat (two-dimensional) sheet of paper.

I believe that this series of shots demonstrates the photographer's "unreal" Milan, where buildings from large become playful miniatures and cityscapes are confined within the limits of a little theater.“

Written by Davide Libretti