Mario Cresci. L’oro del tempo

Mario Cresci (Chiavari, 1942) is one the key figure of the history of photography. His work is characterized by a continue research, experimentation and contamination between photography, art, architecture, graphics and folklore. In 2019 he won the program ICCD/Artisti in residenza [Artist residencies]. The aim of the program is to give the possibility to an artist to enter in touch with the ICCD archive and develop a project starting from it.

Mario Cresci writes: “I had no particular theme or topic in mind to research other than to leave open all the possibilities due to a happy encounter between me and the ancient photographs that passed through my eyes by the hundreds one after the other like a raging river. I was aware of the importance of the great Roman archive in which I found myself and its immense deposit of lives and memories that appeared to my gaze to a minimum while the idea of ​​a choice oriented towards the collection of archive photos was outlined”. Starting from Nunes Vais archive and from some images of ancient Roman sculptures, the author, through the use of variances, blurring, overlapping, multiplication of signs, brings the archival contents to new life, creating a contemporary language, new dimensions perceptive. The identity of Archivio Bellosguardo, which has become the ICCD identity, is based on a series of elements and processes that could also be traced back to the work of Mario Cresci during his artist residency. The identity was applied to the exhibition design and it fits perfectly. We just add an element to the original design: we decide to use a gold color, inspired by the title.