GIOVANNI ZAFFAGNINI

Tecla (1989 - 1992)

a tribute to Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino


The originality of Tecla lies in the fact that, in a sort of transpositional process, the construction site is approached as if it were not an indeterminate and evolving landscape, but a well-defined and consolidated landscape from an aesthetic perspective [...]. This shift of aesthetic attention to the spaces and structures of the construction site not only signals the broadening of the notion of landscape to unprecedented places but also reflects a willingness to apply one's methods and language in a completely unrestricted manner: it also indicates that the landscape becomes a pretext for developing work that actually focuses on the codes of photography itself. An investigation into which Zaffagnini has often ventured in his research, even experimentally [...], always avoiding the attachment to the theme of the landscape as such that characterized the work of many photographers contemporaneous to him

Roberta Valtorta
from the presentation at the Foto-forum Gallery, Bolzano, 2008.