A.A.A.A. – Avventure Atomiche d’Agosto e d’Asfalto
2023
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August: as enigmatic and unpredictable as its adventures. Under a scorching sun, time dilates and space loses consistency. Routine falters and the curtain opens on an extraordinary dimension. In the streets, rare presences, made of light and high on heat. Atomic and atomic characters – explosive solitudes – wander in a torrid scenery, they are astonishment and decadence. Between the cracks of the incandescent asphalt and the silent buildings, live the rebels of the third landscape: an out-of-context palm tree, an electrified aloe, upside-down palm branches.
Untamed August. Emperor August. When the sun reigns over the capital, everyone bends to its ardour. With splinters of light in their eyes, prisoners of its spell. The asphalt meanwhile sweats lies and reality is a phoenix that burns and is eternally reborn. Those who can go on holiday, take a break from the carousel. Those who stay, however, loosen the moorings of the ego. At 40 degrees, the ordinary staggers and the imperfect reveals itself. And in the shadows, deep and enveloping, ghosts lurk
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A.A.A.A – ‘Atomic Adventures of August and Asphalt’ were photographed in various areas of Rome, in August 2023. The subjects portrayed, human and non-human, are immersed in the placid yet sinister atmosphere of the strangest month of the year. Rome is rarefied, transfigured: we could be anywhere, but we are unequivocally here, in the caput mundi of chaos – where dystopia and utopia coexist in a mysterious amalgam from the time of the seven kings.
(Cecilia Marotta)
This series is part of the collective assignment ‘Roma Chilometro Zero’ organised by Leica Camera Italia and Contrasto Books.