Colore di Città
curate by Totò Le Moli Ajala
Colore di Città is Margherita Bianca’s most recent work. It has for subject Palermo as it is “today”, aniconic from too much discourse coming from the demands of a market and not its foundation. If photography is in good hands it does not need to lend itself to a game of opposites; “urbanity’ was born with Atget who showed us its aspects in such a familiar way which sometimes makes them imperceptible. Margherita Bianca’s images induce – take advantage with finesse the effect of perspective – getting closer to the ever changing city and things ‘as they are’. Between artificial and natural color, stands out in its appropriate light without attenuating what is irreversible, the metaphorical absence of pathos.
The birdcage is full of life as if getting outside the little door was induced by one jump: but first you need to find the measure. So here goes a possible inventory: from beneath, a list of recent skies. In between – we are already in between – open fields almost out dating photography. At eyes height posters, demarcations, unsettling cuts. A pertinent pause is shared. The Mountains profile is no longer crowned like the Other, but lounging, revealing only one peak. Going where? Probably to the northern lights where the exuberance of nature eliminates judgment. Bianca’s photography investigates this healthy organism that radiates with all the strength of the season, the buildings of humanity doted with a vision; at times a beauty which is almost surreal or an expressive contemplation full of candor. Photography which succeeds in making a treasure out of being in between, and also the photographer is distancing herself (Friedlander often made this kind of photograph), making one’s own contemporary language without the need for manufactured opinion.
The closing image, almost polarized, is that of a little horse crossing the tracks of the new tram against the red light. It is a folkloric image ready to take us elsewhere, full of traditional emotion, beyond urbanism. This could not happen outside the contrast of things and having a vision.
translated from Italian by Keja Ho
