Federico Clavarino
‘Italia O Italia’
by Federico Clavarino, published by Void.
“I was born and raised in Italy but always felt like a stranger there. It was only once I moved abroad in my early twenties that I really started looking at the place, as I tried to decipher why everything felt so familiar and yet so strange to me. It was then that I resolved to travel through all of the country and draw the opposite of a map: a labyrinth made of slivers of its territory, a book one could walk through and get lost in, another Italy shadowing the one we know.”
Federico Clavarino
Italia O Italia
In ‘Italia O Italia’, Federico Clavarino constructs a fictional Italy from photographs taken across the peninsula. The images in the book show the remains of the country’s monumental past weighing on the contemporary landscape, signalling inertia and inability to move on from a glorious past.
Clavarino had been living abroad and when he returned to Italy he experienced the country with a new perspective. Over a period of 5-years he photographed in towns and cities, working like an architect to find elements he could splice together—corners, streets, archways, blind alleys. His consistent use of light, colour and awkward angles created a uniformity amongst the different urban landscapes. He sequenced and edited the photographs to create a labyrinth of different cities and towns for the viewer to journey through.
“These flaws in everyday reality, that appear when time is put on hold by the camera, end up revealing the individuality of a place that looks as if it were waiting for a new start, or rather for a different destiny.”
Federico Clavarino
The book is devoid of text and so the viewer must rely on the recurring symbols, references and echoes to try to find their bearings—stone archways and doorways which lead to nowhere, hand gestures recalling fascist salutes, brick walls and ruins. The book opens with a broken watch mechanism in the palm of a hand—signalling that time has stood still. There is scant human presence in the images and those who are pictured are only partly shown, pictured from behind, or moving out the frame giving the impression of a silent and scarcely populated land. Grand columns and structures of the old co-exist with contemporary contributions of collapsed umbrellas, plastic bags, rubbish and graffiti—showing a landscape at odds with itself.
‘Italia O Italia’ was originally published in 2014 by Akina, this new edition retains elements of the minimalist design of the original book to allow the images and sequencing to remain at the fore. There are seven previously unpublished images and slight changes in sequencing with Clavarino relaxing some of the structural rules he imposed on the project in favour of a smoother sequence with rhythm and feeling taking precedence over structure.
Italia O Italia
17,3 x 23,3 cm
136 pages
1000 copies
Hardcover
ISBN 978-618-5479-36-7
Federico Clavarino
Federico Clavarino is a visual artist, researcher and educator. He studied creative writing at Scuola Holden in Turin and photography at BlankPaper Escuela in Madrid. He also holds a Master of Research degree from the Royal College of Art in London, where he is currently pursuing a PhD by practice. He has published eight books so far and his works have been exhibited all over Europe in festivals, galleries and museums. He taught at BlankPaper Escuela from 2012 to 2017, and currently lectures and gives workshops internationally, collaborating with museums, schools and universities.
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Photo-Eye – Best Photobook of 2024: Josef Chladek
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GREECE, Void
ITALY, Sugar Paper Library
PORTUGAL, Narrativa
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Photograph: Federico Clavarino
Edit: Federico Clavarino, Myrto Steirou
Design: João Linneu, Myrto Steirou
Printing: Future Format
Binding: Future Format
Font: Ostrich Sans by Tyler Finck
Federico Clavarino © for the photographs
Void © for this edition