Stefano Cerio lives and works in Rome and Paris.
His work increasingly focuses on the theme of representation, exploring the boundary line between vision, recounting the real and the spectator’s horizon of expectation, the staging of a possible reality that might not be true but is at least plausible. In this sense, projects such as Sintetico Italiano (Italian Synthetic), Souvenir, Aquapark, Night Ski, Chinese Fun are stages in a coherent artistic development which finds in the concept of memory, in the “other” place as a catalyst for present desires and future memories, in the idea of holiday and entertainment, that suspension of daily life which the author studies and recounts in images.
The places you portray raise in the reader mixed emotions. Calm and discomfort are the first feelings when you dive into your lines. Subjectively, do you think they are more beautiful, at the moment of the shot, in silence, or full of life?
For me they are interesting especially when they are empty (but never abandoned, the aesthetics of abandonment don’t interest me). They are places designed to accommodate large numbers of people. When nobody is there, they realize how surreal and incongruous they are with the surrounding land- scape. Even empty, however, keep the memory of all the people who, perhaps a few hours before, had frequented them. I love to call them “absence portraits “ photographs of people who are not there at the time.
Looking for your name on Google, the sear- ch gives us back many images and links to articles of exhibitions and events. We have listened to several of your video interviews where your voice breaks into the silence of your images. In the era of personal image, we ask you how you would like your public image to be perceived? And the private one?
Those who know me personally know that I’m not a very competitive person. I love my work, but I don’t think that we must necessarily be constantly present, especially on a moment in which we have nothing to say. Creating requires some breaks and I think it’s good to take them. So yeah, I’d like this to appear both in my public and private image.
What is your definition of the word ‘bellissimo’?
I have a vision of beauty that is completely different between my work and personal life. A place I consider beautiful to spend time in, almost certainly I have zero interest to take pictures of. In my life I’ve never entered went to a water park for entertainment, and so to a playground. But when I’m in these places alone with my camera, they become incredibly beautiful and I get excited as a child.
