Say something about yourself?
I’m an Italian photographer (Trieste,1987) who lives and works in a small town called Staranzano, in the north East of Italy. After a short period of study at Spazio Labo’ in Bologna, I worked with artists such as Massimo Mastrorillo and Federico Clavarino. In addition, I attended several workshops with Antonio Xoubanova, Ricardo Cases, Anouk Kruithof, Jason Fulford, Max Pinckers, Milo Montelli, Fosi Vegue, Michele Tagliaferri, Martin Kollar and Aleix Plademunt.
What is this series?
Sinking Stone is a project totally produced in the city of Venice. Drawing on traditions of baroque theatre, sculpture, architecture and painting, my photographs shine a harsh light on the contrasting surfaces and residents of the city. Sinking Stone is a modern day Vanitas, showing both sides of Venice — a town immortalised through its history and tourism and a precarious, unstable island sinking into water. The constant invasion of tourists creates a sort of living theater, full of moments and opportunities. I’m concentrated on the body language, gestures and poses of these flocks, desperate to photograph, pose and record with grotesque regularity, without penetrating the surface of the city. My colour work also relates to the Venetian pictorial technique of “tonalismo”, which meant depth was achieved by means of the use of colour. In Sinking Stone, the use of flash and of a limited colour palette points to a different end: illusionistic space is constantly challenged by overexposed areas and awkward angles. My Venice appears like a Gorgon mask, a vulgar, almost overwhelming face which behind reveals little. After all, vanus, the Latin root word for the city, means empty.
How/When did you start this series?
The series began at the end of September 2016 and then ended around July 2017. I remember that I armored myself with a camera to try to represent this living theater in Venice. I photographed in a totally free way and without patterns. At the time there were still no ideas related to the Baroque. In this I agree with what Guido Guidi says: the development of a project goes hand in hand with his work. There can be continuous changes and new ideas based on the material produced.
What do you want to tell the audience about this work?
I would like the audience to have my will to go well beyond the representation of a postcard Venice or with the classic approach of a street photography.I tried to create something unique and completely different about a wonderful city that is experiencing a critical moment under the political and social point of view (the advent of a tax to access the city and the management of the flow of tourists, the passages of the large ships that have recently caused many problems, the deterioration of the infrastructures caused also by the high water.
Any news or updates?
I’m working on a completely different new project around capitalism. I traveled to different countries around the world, photographing employees, skyscrapers, teenagers in discos and the mutation of the city from day to night using artificial lights.I hope that the work will come to light in the form of a book in 2020.
Cristiano Volk
I’m an Italian photographer ( Trieste 1987 ) who lives and works in a small town called Staranzano, in the north east of Italy. After a short period of study at Spazio Labò in Bologna, I worked with artists such as Massimo Mastrorillo and Federico Clavarino. In addition, I attended several workshops with Antonio Xoubanova, Ricardo Cases, Anouk Kruithof, Jason Fulford, Max Pinckers, Milo Montelli, Fosi Vegue, Michele Tagliaferri, Martin Kollar and Alex Plademunt.www.cristianovolk.com
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