DITTICO NAPEX 223206

Dittico Napex 223208 Napoli Explosion

Looking at this diptych, which, immense, provides a sensation of immersion in red, I realize that the photographs have clearly been inverted. They are no longer oriented towards the landscape but extend upwards; the landscapes are vertically oriented. This peculiarity, typically associated with paintings rather than photographs, brings to mind Kandinsky's famous saying, "A painting must be balanced in every sense, in every direction, to be a perfect painting." The traces that light leaves on the camera's sensor resemble brushstrokes. It is truly astonishing. Napoli Explosion

Sylvain Bellenger

Napoli Explosion

The window of my bedroom overlooked Mount Vesuvius, and every morning, with reverence, I whispered a good morning to it as one would address a slumbering person, afraid of awakening them. The volcano is a living presence for anyone living at its slopes. For over 12 years, on New Year's Eve, my team and I ascend Mount Faito, a mountain overlooking the Bay of Naples, to capture the extraordinary choreography of lights and colors produced by fireworks all around Vesuvius. Through this superstitious and propitiatory ritual, the people of Naples welcome the new year. The image of the black and silent silhouette of the volcano submerged by the cacophony of fireworks' colors seemed to me a representation that needed to be explored seriously and viewed from different perspectives. Over the years, the project has evolved into an experimentation of new forms of writing with light, using a unique color palette provided by the hundreds of thousands of fireworks exploding simultaneously. Over time, Napoli Explosion has become a work in search of the feeling of light.

Mario Amura

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