Graziani is a collector of objects, not a storyteller. With the meticulous eye of an archivist, he detaches things from their context, revealing them to us. Whether the object of his photographic exploration is a stack of aluminum profiles, a mock-up of a window section, or an artwork, it is “objectified” in the same way, contributing portrait and to question Finstral‘s production facilities as well as the idea of the window itself. The fact that it is shown primarily through its form, independent of its function, gives it a sculptural quality. Picture Window Frame is a book designed by Giulia Cordin and a traveling show with the exhibition design by Brussel architectural firm Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen.

A photographic project on Villa Madama in Rome (1520). This project left incomplete at the moment Raphael died, today is the representative office of the presidency of the council of ministers. This project conceived together with Kersten Geers’ atelier at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture fills a void in the iconography of this spectacular project by Raphael. Un progetto fotografico su Villa Madama a Roma (1520). Questo progetto, la cui costruzione si è interrotta con la morte di Raffaello, oggi è sede di rappresentanza della presidenza del consiglio dei ministri. Questo libro è stato pensato assieme all’atelier di Kersten Geers all’accademia di architetttura di Mendrisio e colma un vuoto nell’ iconografica di questo progetto di Raffaello.

“Investigating the transformative ability of photography, Graziani highlights the altered nature of his subjects. In practice, none of them correspond to the work that appeared to Raphael’s eyes, yet in any case we are dealing with the result of different events and modifications occurring over the course of time. From restorations, renovations, and reconstructions to ex novo realizations based on original plans, these projects indicate the distance between past and present.” —Francesco Zanot

Documents on Raphael is not only a rediscovery project carried out on the five hundredth anniversary of Raphael’s death, but above all an operation of re-visioning. Stefano Graziani’s photographs explore the works of the artist from Urbino—with particular reference to his output as an architect—their transformation over time, and his own process that translated them into images. Graziani puts variation before permanence and reflects on the very concept of the restoration, the archive, conservation, display, and of course the original, that last so dear to the photographic debate, especially considering that Raphael never saw any of his works as we see them today. Graziani’s images, combined with reliable evidence regarding Raphael’s production, refer back to the most iconic classical genres of representation: landscape and still life.

Una sequenza notturna di fotografie compone una visione misteriosa e frammentata di superfici che non riusciamo a riconoscere con precisione. Ci troviamo nel sito neolitico di Carnac in Bretagna. Diventa possibile trovarci nelle profondità oceaniche, affianco a noi una balena ci mostra segni e cicatrici di una remota esistenza in spazi marini bui e sconosciuti. Un evento notturno, è un nuovo passo dell’autore nel suo personale museo del mondo e della sua esperienza. A serie of night photographs made in the historical site of Carnac in Brittany. The 16 pages are showing a sequence of images which build up a fragmented view of mysterious surfaces. As if we were in the deepness of the ocean a gigantic whale is just beside us revealing the scars and the signs of a wild and uncanny life in the unknown space of the ocean. A nocturnal event and a new step into the author’s own museum and experience of the world.

Brussels-based 51N4E deals with matters of architectural design, concept development, and strategic spatial transformations. Headed by Johan Anrys and Freek Persyn, the office was founded in 1998 and aspires to contribute to social and urban transformation. This book – part photo-novel, part real-life journey – tells the story of 51N4E in multiple ways. Combining short stories by Falma Fshazi with photographs by Stefano Graziani, it is a narrative of discovery and embracing otherness, as well as a retrospective look at projects since 2004. It describes the encounters and processes by which the architects learned to operate in a culture and context very different from their own.

«Non sono sicuro l’arte sia qualcosa che facciamo per la conoscenza; come per le scienze, la storia o il giornalismo, l’arte ha a che fare con l’esperienza». Jeff Wall Profondo conoscitore della storia dell’arte, Jeff Wall è noto per aver utilizzato la tecnica del light-box, tratta dall’architettura commerciale e vernacolare americana, ma soprattutto per le sue mise en scene, ovvero la creazione di set di carattere cinematografico con veri e propri attori sulla scena. Le sue opere, al di là del loro forte impatto sul mercato dell’arte, hanno suscitato l’attenzione di grandi critici come Susan Sontag o Jean-François Chevrier, e sono state elette a decisiva fonte d’ispirazione da alcuni fra i maggiori fotografi contemporanei, da Andreas Gursky a Thomas Ruff. Nel caso di Wall, inoltre, all’attività di artista si affianca una notevole produzione di saggi critici e teorici, qui raccolti secondo una selezione studiata esclusivamente per questa edizione e suddivisi in due gruppi: da un lato le riflessioni sulla propria opera di fotografo, dall’altro gli scritti dedicati ad alcuni artisti come Roy Arden, Rodney Graham, Steven Balkenhol, On Kawara, ma anche a un pittore impressionista come Manet. È un doppio registro da cui emerge una acuta e competente riconsiderazione del mezzo espressivo grazie anche a una minuziosa riflessione sulle tecniche e i materiali, ma non mancano lucide digressioni speculative in filosofia o in architettura (come quando, solo per fare un esempio, Wall mette a confronto il lavoro di Dan Graham con quello di Philip Johnson e Aldo Rossi). La forza di questi scritti nel loro insieme sta nel ricavare un alveo rigoroso e stabile, nell’ambito della storia dell’arte, non solo all’opera stessa dell’autore, ma soprattutto alla fotografia in generale: l’arte più massificata e più soggetta alle minacce dell’impostura.

Built around the idea of the taxonomy the classification of the visible, Graziani’s photographic project documents collections and institutions from the sphere of the natural sciences that are historically entwined with colonial practices and historical ways of observation. Twenty full-page colour photographs depict specific aspects of botanical collections, herbariums and naturalistic dioramas.

Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo è una guida d’artista libera e arbitraria del museo di via Alloro. È un racconto fatto dei pensieri e delle visioni di Stefano Graziani, Cloe Piccoli, artisti, architetti, curatori, studiosi e storici dell’arte, e si inserisce nel processo della storia e della mitologia del luogo. È una narrazione contemporanea che si ispira a un luogo storico per la sua stratificazione culturale, per il dialogo fra l’architettura, le collezioni e l’allestimento di Carlo Scarpa, e ne rivela così potenzialità e vitalità. Il lavoro inizia con una visita a luci spente e a museo chiuso per attraversare epoche e culture, storie antiche e visioni contemporanee, opere d’arte e architetture. A scandire il percorso le fotografie di Stefano Graziani, artista dal talento speciale in grado di cogliere coincidenze in cui convergono dettagli architettonici, display, opere e raggi di luce. Una tenda illuminata dal sole che scherma una finestra di una delle sale più solenni di Palazzo Abatellis è un’immagine tanto precisa quanto aperta a un’altra possibile interpretazione. Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo è un viaggio sorprendente in un luogo che pensavamo di conoscere. Con saggi critici di Massimo Bartolini, Philippe Duboy, Simon Starling, Luca Trevisani.

“Massimo Bottura is the Jimi Hendrix of Italian chefs. . .he takes familiar dishes and classical flavors and techniques and turns them on their heads in a way that is innovative, boundary‐breaking, sky kissing, and entirely whimsical, but ultimately timeless, and most importantly, deliciously satisfying.” – Mario Batali

Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef is a tribute to Bottura’s twenty‐five year career and the evolution of Osteria Francescana, his three Michelin star restaurant based in Modena, Italy. Divided into four chapters, each one dealing with a different period, the book features 50 recipes and stories explaining Bottura’s inspirations (including the music and art that motivates him), ingredients, and techniques. Follow Bottura as he pries, pokes and questions the authority of tradition, and in result creates whimsical dishes with a wink such as Memory of a Mortadella Sandwich, Tortellini Walking on Broth, and Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart!.

Illustrated with specially commissioned color photography by contemporary artists Stefano Graziani and Carlo Benvenuto, and featuring a conversation between Bottura and artist Maurizio Cattelan, Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef will delight and inspire chefs, Italian food lovers, and fans of creative cuisine alike.

The House of Memory is a house, a collective house in which Milanese citizens hope to find protection for the memories they want to preserve. Nobody inhabits this house, and in this case the word house is understood as an envelope, a protected space, or a shelter that crystallizes memory within the flow of the metropolis. So the house becomes an object to be both protected and exhibited, a treasury to be surrounded with an envelope that both defends and exposes its content.

Stefano Graziani’s photographs depict the construction of the building, while the texts by Howard Burns, Jean-Louis Cohen and Kersten Geers try to interpret its significance in the context of contemporary architecture. The book includes a complete set of drawings of the building.

Stefano Graziani is a photographer living and working in Trieste. Trained as an architect, he teaches the history and technique of photography at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Trieste and has been working for five years in the photographic lab of the Design and Art Faculty at IUAV, Venice, as well as organising different workshops at universities throughout Europe. The Cavallino-Treporti Fotografia initiative selected Graziani its chosen photographer this year because he has contributed both new images and a new language to the medium, creating meaningful links between the fascinating physical properties of nature and the ethereality of fireworks.

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