During the Paris Photo 2018, in the Parisian showroom of Boulevard Saint Germain, Marazzi presents the exhibition ‘Scatti d'Autore’: factory, game, light and ceramics interpreted by the great masters of photography.
Set up at the first floor of the Haussmanian building that houses the spaces of the famous ceramic brand, the exhibition is divided into three rooms representing different ways of interpreting the material and the company’s history. In the first room, Gianni Berengo Gardin investigates the factory and the production; in the second one, Andrea Ferrari focuses on the material and its interaction with light; in the third one, the approach of Luigi Ghirri is playful and suggests suspended atmospheres.
Gianni Berengo Gardin (Santa Margherita Ligure 1930) is the photographer who told the transformations of Italy. In 1977, he described the revolution made by Marazzi in the world of ceramics, with the creation of the first fast production lines and the development of factories with new plants.
The collaboration between the company and Luigi Ghirri started in 1980, with a project in which Ghirri involved the American photographer Cuchi White (Cleveland 1930 - Paris 2013) and Charles H. Traub (Louisville 1945), artist and director of the Light Gallery in New York, in order to interpret the new ceramic collections. The 'Marazzi Portfolio' was the result, numbered and signed by the artists. Here, ceramic is interpreted by Ghirri as surface and mental space, by Traub as infinite possibility of composition superimposed on cities colors and people's clothes, by Cuchi White as the Mediterranean light.
In the most playful section of the exhibition, Ghirri's shots evoke metaphysical atmospheres in which tile is the ultimate protagonist beside the other elements of the scene.
Art is again the visual spokesperson for the technological revolution in the photographs taken by Andrea Ferrari (Milan 1970). Exhibited in the hall dedicated to Ferrari, 'Light and matter', the images follow the finishes of the ceramic surface worked with the ink-jet technology, which generates a perfect mimesis of natural details. The material takes the knottiness of the wood, the depth of the cement, the streaks of marble, the impenetrability of the stone, interacting with light and placing itself at the center of the photographic analysis.
The exhibition, in the windows, is introduced by the shots of Charles H. Traub, who chooses the tile overlaid with a photographic portrait, and Cuchi White (Cleveland 1930 - Paris 2013) that enhances the elements contrast with pop ideas.
