Writing a novel is no mean feat, but so is attempting to narrate a story about architecture via images taken in different countries.
Brazilian photographer Mauro Restiffe attempted to do so for a few years, taking colour and black and white images of iconic architectures by Oscar Niemeyer, Philip Johnson, Carlo Mollino, Piero Portaluppi, Franco Albini and Carlo Scarpa among the others.
The images are currently part of an exhibition - "History As Landscape" - dedicated to the Brazilian photographer that has just opened at the Binario 2 of OGR - Officine Grandi Riparazioni (Corso Castelfidardo 22, Turin, Italy; until 5th January 2020).
Curated by Nicola Ricciardi and Giulia Guidi, the event features seventy-eight images displayed on a wall, and opposite it larger prints of architectural images that pay homage to monumental architectures.
Niemeyer's Brasília has a special place in Restiffe's vision: the futuristic city that had to break with the country's colonial past and give faith in technological progress, is one of the main protagonists of Restiffe's personal novel (iconic buildings such as the Palácio da Alvorada appear in different images included in the exhibition).
But while in L'Homme de Rio (That Man From Rio, 1964) directed by Philippe de Broca, Brasília was an unfinished work-in-progress, in Restiffe's "Empossamento" (2003) and "Oscar" (2012) series, it is a lively city where people meet, walk, march and protest.
Turin, Milan and Genoa also make an appearance, but via details of buildings that are not that well-known and that do not represent your average images of Italian cities. Many of the spaces captured by Restiffe become anonymous, often they absorb a vintage aura even when the photographs were taken only 6 years ago.
This is possible thanks to the fact that Restiffe favours analogical to digital photography, a medium that also allows him to freeze the architectures he photographs in time and space.
At times Restiffe creates in his images juxtapositions between interior and exterior spaces, buildings and landscapes, a subtle human presence like a man resting on a garden lounge chair and what looks like utter desolation.
In some images the juxtapositions seem to overlap: one photograph of the Pampulha Modern Ensemble - the centre of a visionary garden city project including a casino, a ballroom, a golf yacht club and the São Francisco de Assis church, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1940 at Belo Horizonte - shows the luscious plants and trees in the garden reflecting on the windows that open up onto the empty spaces of the buildings.
Some of the images included in the exhibition wouldn't look out of place in a glossy fashion magazine, others could instead be used to tell the long adventure of Modernism.
Architecture serves as a stage for history, may it be public or private, so it is the main character in Restiffe's novel, but there is also a co-protagonist - geometry.
There are lines, surfaces, planes, angles, swirling sets of stairs and symmetrical balustrades, mesmerising ceilings and buildings reflecting on water, creating temporary liquid architectures.
But Restiffe's images are not just about angles and planes: in these tales from Brasília and other stories, Restiffe seems to be particularly attracted by the sensual curves he spots in buildings, a feature that gives a touch of humanity to some of his images and strengthens his bond with Niemeyer.
The Brazilian architect wrote indeed in his memoir, The Curves of Time, "I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman."
Image credits for this post
1. Mauro Restiffe, History As Lanscape, 2019. Installation view at OGR Torino. Photo Andrea Rossetti. Courtesy OGR Torino
2.
Mauro Restiffe
Oscar #18, 2012
Ed. 3 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print
135 x 207 cm
3.
Mauro Restiffe
Oscar #20b, 2012
Ed. 3 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print
120 x 180 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
4.
Mauro Restiffe
Empossamento #3, 2003
Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print
68 x 102 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
5.
Mauro Restiffe
Empossamento #1c, 2003
Ed. 6 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print
35 x 55 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
6.
Mauro Restiffe
Empossamento #9, 2003
Ed. 3 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print
110 x 166 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
7.
Mauro Restiffe
Allen by the Window at James’ House, 2005
Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print
60 x 90 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
8.
Mauro Restiffe
Avenida Paulista #10, Anchieta, 2017
Ed. 3 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print framed and mounted on
Dibond
42 x 63 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
9.
Pampulha #2, 2018
Ed. 3 + 2 AP
C-Print 90 x 90 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
10.
Mauro Restiffe
Brutal Mirror, 2015
Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print framed and mounted on
dibond
136 x 201 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
11.
Mauro Restiffe
Geometry, 2015
Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print framed and mounted on
dibond
123 x 181 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
12.
Mauro Restiffe
O Aquario, 2000
Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print
68 x 102 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
13.
Mauro Restiffe
Monument, 2015
Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print framed and mounted on
dibond
112,5 x 166,5 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
14.
Mauro Restiffe
JK 2, 2014
Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Gelatin silver print
135 x 207 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
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