Meditations on the Italian landscape.


Territories are like a traveling companion who is never quiet. For better or for worse we like to think so. Sometimes, however, we would like it to remain still, to avoid the corrections induced by rapidly changing human needs. The survey by Gianpaolo Arena on the remains of changes in agricultural land in Veneto, enchants us for this very reason. As he explains: “My attention was captured by farm houses and ruins where the vegetation, like a virus, has affected the architectural structure itself, changing its morphology”. And, so doing, he suggests to “keep these places as they are, decadent but harmoniously balanced, buried remains but animated by their own inner life made of plants and animals, extraordinary witnesses of memory, history, culture. Enjoyment of pure time, pure pleasure of the outdated”. Isn’t nature perhaps a better guardian than man for the secrets of the past?

Photo:

© Courtesy of Gianpaolo Arena

www.gianpaoloarena.com

(click on the image at right for more pictures)