Silence / Shapes
This set of photographic editions and the video installation are part of the Silence/Shapes series, which Filippo Minelli began in 2009 with the aim of giving silence a physical shape.
Inspired by political demonstrations in which smoke bombs or tear gas are the element muting the scene both visually and acoustically, Minelli decided to use the smoke itself to visualise silence in the landscape, decontextualising the smoke bombs in places that could amplify the feeling of calmness in order to give shape to what is invisible by its very nature. Opposing the violence of the smoke with the romantic idea of beauty, Minelli shows that beauty itself can be found in clashing visions, adding a political meaning to the deceptively aesthetic result.
The visual impact in the photographs of the series is similar to what Kurosawa did with the sound effects in his films, removing the audio suddenly after war scenes, leaving the audience shocked with the sudden materialisation of silence.
As the artist himself states:
Whether created in natural landscapes, abandoned places, or urban settings, I look for places that can highlight the presence of silence and explain it in different ways, because there are many kinds of silences. Different sceneries help me to communicate slightly different emotions or memories. It's a way of making resurface deep feelings and experiences that are already there in the viewer.
The first two contexts have a similar type of feeling, there is in them an absence of any kind of activity, they exist simply because they exist. In natural contexts the idea is more about making past experiences reemerge, like remembering the feeling one experiences in face of the natural landscape, similar to what romantic painters were trying to achieve. In urban landscapes it's about a similar process but the feeling is not so much that of silence but rather of emergency. It's more about the fear of failing to understand, of facing a situation over which one has no control while highlighting the positive aspect of not being in control. The visual aspect, which is a very powerful tool, is what helps to bring out these feelings. It helps materialise a process that is already happening inside oneself.
This set of photographic editions and the video installation are part of the Silence/Shapes series, which Filippo Minelli began in 2009 with the aim of giving silence a physical shape.
Inspired by political demonstrations in which smoke bombs or tear gas are the element muting the scene both visually and acoustically, Minelli decided to use the smoke itself to visualise silence in the landscape, decontextualising the smoke bombs in places that could amplify the feeling of calmness in order to give shape to what is invisible by its very nature. Opposing the violence of the smoke with the romantic idea of beauty, Minelli shows that beauty itself can be found in clashing visions, adding a political meaning to the deceptively aesthetic result.
The visual impact in the photographs of the series is similar to what Kurosawa did with the sound effects in his films, removing the audio suddenly after war scenes, leaving the audience shocked with the sudden materialisation of silence.
As the artist himself states:
Whether created in natural landscapes, abandoned places, or urban settings, I look for places that can highlight the presence of silence and explain it in different ways, because there are many kinds of silences. Different sceneries help me to communicate slightly different emotions or memories. It's a way of making resurface deep feelings and experiences that are already there in the viewer.
The first two contexts have a similar type of feeling, there is in them an absence of any kind of activity, they exist simply because they exist. In natural contexts the idea is more about making past experiences reemerge, like remembering the feeling one experiences in face of the natural landscape, similar to what romantic painters were trying to achieve. In urban landscapes it's about a similar process but the feeling is not so much that of silence but rather of emergency. It's more about the fear of failing to understand, of facing a situation over which one has no control while highlighting the positive aspect of not being in control. The visual aspect, which is a very powerful tool, is what helps to bring out these feelings. It helps materialise a process that is already happening inside oneself.
