A contemporary narrative, an artist's book, a surprising journey into a place that we thought we knew.
Work began at dawn one Monday morning in September as part of the project entitled The Hidden City, with lights off and museum closed, in order to move through eras and cultures, ancient stories and contemporary visions; to observe works of art, architecture, saloni, courtyards and terraces. The narrative is triggered by the encounter with this unique place —thanks to its architecture coupled with the collections and displays created by
Carlo Scarpa—presented through the contemporary vision of the authors. The outcome is a tale that distils the ideas and intuitions of Cloe Piccoli and Stefano Graziani along with those of artists, architects, curators, scholars and art historians.
Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo dialogues with the history, mythology and iconography of the museum in via Alloro, to unveil the potential and vitality of a process that continues to unfold. The itinerary is punctuated by the photographs of Stefano Graziani, who has the special talent of grasping the coincidences in which architectural details, displays, works of art and rays of light all converge.
Cloe Piccoli is an art critic and curator, a tenured professor lecturing on Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan, and a contributor to the culture pages of the daily newspaper
La Repubblica. She has curated exhibitions at the MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo, Rome; at the PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan; at the Museo del Novecento, Milan; and at the Triennale, Milan. She has published with Baldini & Castoldi, Electa and
Mousse.
Stefano Graziani (born 1971 in Bologna) has always been interested in photography projects in book form, and he treads along the borders between photography, art and architecture.
Graziani is the author of
Questioning Pictures (Fondazione Prada, 2017);
Carnac or les Alignements (a+mbookstore, 2018);
Mostra Fotografica (Quodlibet 2022);
Picture Window Frame (a+m bookstore 2022);
The Lives of Documents (CCA Montreal / König Books, 2024). He edited the volume
Jeff Wall, Gestus. Scritti sull'arte e la fotografia (Quodlibet, 2013). He is co-founder of the magazines
San Rocco and
Genda. His works have been exhibited internationally by institutions such as Fondazione Prada in Milan, the Venice Architecture Biennial or the European Art Biennial Manifesta. He teaches on the Master in Photography course at the IUAV in Venice, at the NABA in Milan, and at the Freie Universität in Bolzano.
published in March 2019
bilingual edition (English / Italian)
17 x 23 cm (softcover)
160 pages (color ill.)
ISBN : 978-88-99385-58-3
EAN : 9788899385583
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