A building made with images
Viasaterna was created in 2015 on the initiative of Irene Crocco, founder in 2011 of the project Da vicino, in which she exhibited the artworks of various Italian artists in her Milanese apartment. Viasaterna is a two-level gallery in a late 19th -century building. The premises were carefully designed and refurbished by architect and collector Flavio Albanese. The gallery’s name is inspired by and pays tribute to Via Saterna, an imaginary street described by Dino Buzzati in his Poema a Fumetti, (1969, Arnoldo Mondadori). A world in which dreams and reality intertwine in a tapestry of people, destinies, lives and imagination. From this magical and mysterious atmosphere, Irene Crocco drew the inspiration to create a gallery that, through art, becomes a living crossroads for people and ideas. The exhibition programme of the gallery is the result of cooperation with the Fantom team and Benedetta Pomini. Starting from a specific interest in photography, Viasaterna also explores every other form of contemporary art.
Contacts
www.viasaterna.com
via Leopardi 32, 20123 Milano
Irene Crocco (gallerista): irene@viasaterna.com
Benedetta Pomini (direttrice di galleria): benedetta@viasaterna.com
The Castle does not provide easy answers. In an atmosphere full of inflammatory rhetoric ripe for conspiratorial musings, it might seem fool-hearty to perpetuate these narratives. At the same time, The Castle touches on a very real strain of pessimism that threatens to affect us all. Institutions are increasingly opaque; they control our lives with frightening precision, and when they do fail, they remerge stronger than before. It is hard to fight, let alone visualize these forces, but it is our only hope.— Adam Bell
The Castle 30 23
FEDERICO CLAVARINO (Italy, 1983. Lives and works in Madrid)
Federico Clavarino works with symbols. His photographs, often close-ups, represent one subject at a time, a detail, and place it firmly in front of the viewer, leaving no chance to distraction. They are the playing cards of an unknown game, forming a syncopated and hyperbolic narration. The Castle is a series dedicated to Europe. Starting from its history, the signs it has left on the skin of the cities or hid in protected museum rooms. In and out. Visible and invisible. Body and mind. Up to those elements that identify an entire culture, working alternatively as principles of sharing and separation. The castle is a closed, mysterious structure. It is impenetrable and yet, from the top of its walls, you can see all around.
Photo: 30 23 from the series The Castle, inkjet print on Harman paper, cm 30x20 © Federico Clavarino, courtesy Viasaterna