' ACts '
Alvaro Caleca
ARTISTE 2023
BIO
Alvaro Caleca, trasversal artist born in Milan, 1993.
The strong interest in the world of theater and acting led him to have his first engagements at the age of 11, he studied theater at the theater company "Quelli Di Grock” in Milan and performed both on television and as leading character in a film production.
In 2012 his interest in Art and Design took shape with the production of "Mind Reflections", an emblematic mirror/sculpture produced by Glas-Italia.
After studying Graphic Design in London (Central St Martin) he returned to Italy where he began to enter the world of photography. He worked for 9 years in close contact with his father (photographer) and together they explored his large archive of reportage and photography of architecture and design from the 70s to today, following the artistic direction of various editorial and artistic projects.
One of the first independent works as a photographer comes with the meeting of the artist Pino Pipoli who commissions him the photographic documentation of a big retrospective (MOSTRO, 2015) in the Marsèll artistic space in Milan.
This meeting is the birth of a great friendship that will stimulate an increasingly strong artistic interest that sees the use of photography as the main medium, but not only.
In ACTS ( I II III IV V VI) a set of photographs is presented which tells of the process of creation, awakening, growth and the relationship between Master and Apprentice. Through a language that takes inspiration from the world of theater, a strong narrative structure is revealed with the intention of giving back to the viewer that characteristic dreamlike sensitivity of the author.
Alvaro Caleca IG @alvarocaleca
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Text by Bohdan Stupak
Alvaro Caleca (Milan - 1993), transversal experimenter, has embarked on a new journey, a new research that tends to consolidate the creative relationship he has with his partner Thomas, this union has produced a photographic story.
In the exhibition, there are images that derive from an almost casual process, which subsequently proved to be fruitful. The artist shows us a passage of shots, passing from a figurative series collected in the title of ACTS to arriving at a corpus of photographs with an abstract idea of dissolution.
This passage is slow, like in a dream, where the figurations sublimate into thoughts of dreamlike shapes and colors, the Artist suggests: "You can always close your eyes and continue dreaming."
In the photographs where the subject is figurative what attracts our attention are the details, the rings, the details of the clothes or small, almost mysterious, backlit artifacts. These objects become the true Barthesian punctum, in the series of abstract shots these points are eliminated or highlighted, we notice a hat, a gaze or silhouettes, through this controlled experimentation the human figure is stripped again.
Alvaro tells me that the idea was triggered after a night spent at the Club Plastic, in the company of Thomas, it was a morning where the night made the last notes rumble mixed with the sound or noise of the chirping of dawn.
The general idea is to add clothing that could speak to Thomas's naked body, such as the clothes of Pino Pipoli, an all-round artist that the photographer highly esteems, reaffirming that they are bound by a great friendship.
Then you know, these momentary thoughts are often an improvised fruit that vanishes after the night, but Alvaro has implemented the process, going to see Pino to lay the first foundations of this exciting work.
Between one click and another, Pino carefully followed the background, the material produced had almost become an overproduction, but not meaningless for this, and it is here that Alvaro's obsession with polishing, giving a homogeneous corpus and a readable photographic message
Through an almost archaeological modus operandi he chooses photographs capable of expressing a sense of connection to create the Acts that make up this visual journey.
He concludes: “Finally, I have the impression of having discovered a small theatrical play divided into six acts, each of them expressed in its entirety by each single photograph.”
The actors: Thomas - now a transfiguration of Alvaro; the Apprentice.
Pino - the Master.
Subject: Awakening, growth, disillusionment. Through the Master - Apprentice relationship.
