Italia o Italia is built over the ruins of an unresolved empire, a place in which monuments can be rescaled by the act of looking. Photographs taken in Italian cities are brought together to build a labyrinth the viewer is encouraged to walk through, a meditation on how the country’s monumental past weighs upon its present landscape.

The work establishes a continuous duality that makes its way through a labyrinth of contrasts and similarities. By means of light and awkward angles, the reader is walked through a path the photographer creates out of shadows, obscure symbols, human figures and urban landscapes. A kind of stillness permeates every photograph of this series, transforming what is portrayed in an apparently uninhabited space. Yet all of these fragments are imbued with humanity, that can be found hidden in the invisible piece of a scenery, in the gesture of a hand, in the segment of a column or in the disjointed movement of a person.

These flaws in everyday reality, that appear when time is put on hold by the camera, end up revealing the individuality of a place that looks as if it were waiting for a new start, or rather for a different destiny.

Federico Clavarino is a visual artist, researcher and educator. He studied creative writing at Scuola Holden in Turin and photography at BlankPaper Escuela in Madrid. He also holds a Master of Research degree from the Royal College of Art in London, where he is currently pursuing a PhD by practice. He has published eight books so far and his works have been exhibited all over Europe in festivals, galleries and museums. He taught at BlankPaper Escuela from 2012 to 2017, and currently lectures and gives workshops internationally, collaborating with museums, schools and universities.