visual investigation of the natural landscape
Marian Vanzetto’s photographs, especially her emotionally charged, nostalgic black and white landscapes, bring to mind the grand tradition of Romanticism. Even though the stylistic pedigree is undeniable, the way the artist uses this tradition is not easy to decipher. She doesn’t simply reference the style, but rather searches for ideas which are still resonant in contemporary art making.
"Today, what makes the Romantic tradition appealing is certainly not sentimental longing or melancholy, nor the ideal of beauty with its notion of “sublime” or “picturesque”. It is rather the discourse about limits of reason, the search for a place where emotion rules over the will to organize, the belief that an inner fantasy world can be explored in the physical reality. That exploration of the physical realm in search of inner fantasy is characteristic of Marian Vanzetto’s work.
Her black and white photographs capture every detail, every subtle change in the continuous spectrum of tone. On one end there is the radiance of reflected light, and on the other, the very deep black of shadow. Density of detail, layering of foreground, middle-ground and background, create a sense of three dimensional space – lush, sensuous, inviting.
This striving for technical accuracy might represent a Romantic belief that the image holds spiritual value through its sublime qualities. It might also represent a more contemporary attitude. If rich enough, the representation of a certain place provides room to discover something which can be captured only by chance, never by calculation. This notion was well described by Walter Benjamin in his ”Short Essay on Photography”: «Photography makes aware for the first time the optical unconscious, just as psychoanalysis discloses the instinctual unconscious». This is what Marian Vanzetto’s images offer. They convey a sense of longing: to find the inner self in the outside world."
Wanda Siedlecka
Inaugurazione venerdì 28 febbraio, ore 18.00 | SCUDERIE GRANDUCALI
ORARIO: dal giovedì al sabato 15.00-19.00 e la domenica e festivi 10.00-19.00 | Ingresso gratuito
riconoscimento M6/2018 
