NAPEX 233116

Napex 233116 Napoli Explosion

In this image, there is a kind of transparency as if we were seeing the landscape through a pane of glass, which protects us. These are images that we sometimes see through car windshields or windowpanes when it's raining. However, in this case, they are drops of yellow, red, and orange. 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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