After being previewed at the latest edition of a ppr oc he, the Parisian salon dedicated to experimentation with the photographic image, Pietro Bologna's latest series, Elegía (Elegy), is being presented in Milan.
Elegía (Elegy) is a unique series of twenty-four pieces based on a work created in 2018 called Mio Malgrado. This series consists of plates (matrices) on which Pietro Bologna has created a limited edition of gum or lithogravure prints on plates using relatively poor resources, such as a photocopy, a little shellac and gum arabic.
Five unique plates and some smaller gum prints are on display at the gallery.
Due to their size, the fragility of the plates, due to their size, results in creases, tears, holes and deletions, all of which bear witness to their testing. The missing parts draw attention to the material itself. The matrices (from the Latin matrix: "mother; womb") bear the imprint of time. They represent potential that has not yet been realised, the image "outside oneself".
Merleau-Ponty teaches us that, in experience, sight, touch and hearing are not primary, but their background is: the invisible, the untouchable and the inaudible. After all, photography is concerned with light before it is concerned with representation, meaning or narrative. Perhaps we need to free ourselves from meaning. At a time when machines dominate, Pietro Bologna returns to matter.
An artist's book in five copies accompanies the exhibition.
