The term impasse defines the blind alley, the dead-end road. In broader terms, it draws on the imagery of a vicious circle, of a condition of unease and uncertainty, apparently impossible to overcome. It’s this situation of pseudo-paralysis (of the image? of the photographic language? of art itself? of contemporary society?) that provides the starting point for the work of Alessandro Calabrese (Trento, 1983). The artist responds to all this with creative (and re-creative) force through an exhibition that brings together a selection of photographic prints and small glass slides belonging to the series A Failed Entertainment (previously selected in 2015 for the Foam Prize in Amsterdam, then displayed in 2016 at the MACRO in Rome and at the European Photography Festival in Reggio Emilia), as well as the works from his latest project, The Long Thing (2017 – ongoing), of which a preview is presented here.
Despite maintaining a prevalently anti-narrative approach (NO STORYTELLING, please), Calabrese’s works are the consequence of a practice made up of constant juxtapositions and subtractions, breaking the surface of the visible and transforming the ashes of photography, commonly understood as a stimulus for the creation of new imagery.