"Palazzo Budini Gattai: a hidden, wonderful garden; centuries-old plants; peonies and magnolias.
"Palazzo Budini Gattai: a hidden, wonderful garden; centuries-old plants; peonies and magnolias. Huysmans’ atmosphere. Images of Matthew Barney’s studio, Ari Marcopoulos the photographer. Fascinations, emotions, sensations of other times. The energy of the present day." Piombo's Massimo Piombo sets the scene surrounding the photographic portfolio they presented at this years Pitti, La Fabbrica di Matthew Barney.
The project is the latest adventure of Dazed & Confused contributor Ari Marcopoulos, the Amsterdam-born, US-based photographer with a strong subcultural interest. Commissioned by Studio magazine for their second issue, Marcopoulos began frequenting artist Matthew Barney's studio last February, becoming exposed to both the materials and the language of one of the most renowned and guarded artists working today.
Across sculpture, drawing, photography and film, Barney's universe features landmarks, rituals, familiar objects and American sports semiotics distorted violently – and gloriously – beyond their real world standing.
Cameos in Barney's films have included hardcore New York bands Murphy’s Law and Agnostic Front as well as Steve Tucker of Morbid Angel (both Barney and partner Björk, with whom he has a child, are huge fans of death metal). Marcopoulos' focus on alternative lifestyles is an obvious bonding point, with Barney and the photographer recently collaborating on Tubal Cain, a zine/DVD featuring Saskatchewan black metal/noise band WOLD.
La Fabbrica is the first in a series of artist documents by Marcopoulos for Studio magazine, accompanied with an article by journalist, blogger and, yes, Tubain Cain wordsmith, Brandon Stosuy, who notes the photographs "...portray the artist, calm and at ease, in his most natural element, doing what he likes to do, i.e. getting his hands dirty.”
The Pitti Immagine Uomo closes 17 June 2011.
