Catalogue > At random

The project Lost identities was born in early 2011 in the spaces of the psychiatric institutions in Italy. This research takes over from criminal photography of early Twentieth century and it is deeply characterized by archival and photographic research connected with the identity dimension The study of those documents and photographic plates showed features and aesthetic values closer to art than the psychiatric science. Artworks have been realized considering and respecting the original archival bonds, trying to investigate some of the mechanisms that have influenced the physical appearance/identity of the subjects studied. The study of documents such as folders and clinical diaries, personal letters, notes and diagnosis has been the main instrument for the realization of the works. The way patients were treated in the mental institutes has distorted, in many cases permanently, the human, both psychological and physical, identity. People considered "crazy", which actually were in many cases simply suffering of physical deformities or diseases have been transformed into something else. Common paralysis of the face becomes suddenly "imbecility", the anthropometric analysis derived from "Lombroso" has lead to diagnose infectious melancholy, amorality, delirium, paranoia. A metamorphosis which reflects who really the beasts are. These faces and bodies contain a heavy contrast to what life is supposed to be, the patients? identities were stolen, distorted, warped and corroded, and lost. But still it is possible to see in their expressions the wish of an affirmation of life, of struggle and of that tough identity that challenged the eye of the camera. Photographs and video images that suddenly become instruments that instead of stealing can paradoxically give an identity long denied. The photographs of idiots, insane, freaks, maniacs, fools and madmen are not distant and unreal images, but actually only the mirror of ourselves.

Christian Fogarolli is an Italian artist born in 1983. He obtained in 2010 the Master Inside the image: study, diagnosis and restoration of antique, modern and contemporary paintings at the University of Verona and graduated the following year in Management and Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Trento. The research of Christian Fogarolli is characterized by a strong interest in the nature of identity, particularly investigated through different perspectives, such as the archival research. He works with different media, such as environmental installations, photography, sculpture, video. The work shows connections with theories and scientific disciplines, that often and unconsciously, have used art to progress and become science. The artworks can be contextualized within a study on image and object perception in relation to subjectivity, probing ties with the abnormality and deviance. They pose questions about the abundance of heritage that we have and the use we offer them.