Ivan Falardi

Since you often use print as a medium for the execution of your work, may I ask you which type you prefer?

The Kristal method uses scratch-resistant Plexiglas. This type of printing allows me to emphasize the   chromatic appeal of light painting. The scratch-resistant finish, in addition to making the delicate Plexiglas less vulnerable, is more transparent than traditional Plexiglas and, as such, further enhances the print’s effect.

What comes first, the idea or the fascination with the material? In other words, does the artistic project come first, or is it inspired by the techniques and particular processes that have struck you?

The idea comes first, without a doubt. Although, and I’m not shy about it, being able to rely on the type of printing I’ve just described and, above all, on the professionalism of New Lab’s collaborators, capable of   perfectly interpreting the Kristal methodology, comforts and inspires me in my aesthetic choices.

Do you have any Masters you look up to and feel close to?

I don’t have any specific mentors in the field of photography. If anything, my points of reference are cinema, a field I frequented before turning to photography. But even in this case, it’s more about the suggestions underlying those images than specific images.

One example is the extreme close-up of the severed eye in Luis Bunuel’s 1928 film “Un Chien Andalou,” a short film that influenced the Surrealist movement. The idea that we must go beyond the eye to open up to the complexity of our brain was fundamental to my decision to go beyond the photograph itself. I’m sure Lucio Fontana saw that image, and if he didn’t, I’d like to think so.

And here opens the chapter on contemporary art, which I love unconditionally. It’s not a source of inspiration, but it’s certainly a terrain I feel comfortable with and with which I engage, given that the exhibitions take place in galleries, where contemporary art reigns supreme, as well as at international modern and contemporary art fairs. My most recent exhibition, for example, consisted of a “dialogue” between my works on the walls and a sculpture by Giò Pomodoro in the center of the exhibition space.

Finally, a quote that always stays with me; this one has had a profound impact on me. It’s by Otto Steinert: “Absolute photographic creation in its freest aspect renounces any reproduction of reality.”

Her transversal visual experience which over the years has led her to work in the world of video and music is undoubtedly also reflected in her photographic works.

I call them Works and not shots, as the Light Painting technique does not “freeze” a moment but an entire period of time, implementing a paradox that causes the unfolding of an entire action to be condensed and represented in a single vision.

Observing his Light Paintings I couldn’t help but think of musical scores, Arias, rustles, as if light were the very expression of some sound wave or gestural trace of a multi-instrumentalist.

Could you tell me how your need to go beyond taking photographs arose and how or if your previous experiences in other artistic and creative fields initially inspired or inhibited you?

I agree with you. Music, all good music is a lifeblood for me. In addition to accompanying me while I prepare the set for a shot, it establishes the rhythm of my movements in front of the camera. It is the beating heart of my works. I also believe I have made some important contributions to music. During the Toscana Fotofestival in Massa Marittima, which they dedicated to me three years ago, I created an unprecedented and appreciated performance. Thanks to the use of long exposure  I improvised some light painting shots, dictated by the rhythm of a sax, that of   Cocco Cantini (he played with the greatest jazz musicians in the world). He in turn improvised taking inspiration from the colors of the LEDs I was using.

As for the beginning, I must confess that the choice of  photography was dictated by a need. The 25 frames per second that accompanied  my work as a director, they were no longer enough for me. I felt the need to deal with the single frame, attracted by the potential of digital capable of liberating those “imaginative possibilities” claimed by Andrè Breton in his Surrealism Manifesto. 

I have always had to do with photography, but always in a translated form, I used it, but it was not my aim. It was a way of taking notes for the videos I would make. At a certain point I found her in front of me, as if wanting to claim her role, she challenged me. Or bewitched, take your pick.  I accepted the challenge and started from scratch, from something that had always been dormant, in the background and which had now revealed itself, had come out into the open to claim its rightful weight in my personal scale of values. From recording I moved on to decoding and reconstructing hypothetical entities and worlds. With the complicity of light, a daily and never the same miracle (we must take it into account even when it is not there), I approached objects with the expectation of freeing their essences, shapes, chromatic implications to the point of distorting their original nature.

From there my new adventure began, the search for the most congenial way for me to use the camera, to overcome the mimetic nature of the shot, extend its duration and give life to research on time, light, movement. 

Today I know that painting with light, light painting, represents an excellent way to have repaid, at least in part, the claims of photography.