The full 2100 Word essay with 11 photographs on Tomaso Clavarino‘s Padanistan published by Studio Faganel and Guest Editions can be found here. Thank you for your support.
Summary Text below
“My suggestion is that this is a vital book. I am not sure if it is a bit regional in scope. One has to look up what Padania is or is not to fulfill its possibility. Still, given the underlying potential for political and cultural discussions surrounding Padania, I think there is enough room to understand the book as an Italian enterprise first, a European story second, and finally, a photographic act of urgency and consistency. I might suggest that this book and Clavarino’s work share sympathy with a new wave of regional Italian photographers such as Matteo di Giovanni, whose work I have covered extensively and whose approach, though slightly different, resonates wholeheartedly with Padanistan, particularly his book Blue Bar. This suggests that the work is reflexive, similar to generations of artists who came before to current interests in the new Italian photography of the region and thus extends the conversation into the future by employing generational association and a break from the direct concerns of previous generations who could perhaps afford to see the territory for its slowness and absurdity. Though Clavrino shares some of these traits, one cannot leave the political questions on the map unnoticed.”
