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Interview
1. What are the foundations of your research (Art Identity)?
I refer to the romantic sensitivity of that eighteenth-century painting which infused the contemplation of nature and ruins with a strong melancholy component, a poetic nostalgia for lost harmony. In this perspective, the modern ruins that I photograph can no longer be recognized as architectural fragments but as a survival to oblivion, therefore also as a mirror of human fragility.
2. Who are the artists who have guided you in your research?
Two photographers, both Canadian. The first is Robert Polidori, his large pictorial images lead the viewer into a suspended dimension where stories overlap, revealing the gradual passage of time. Then Edward Burtynsky, his study of him on the Anthropocene of recent years has been a great inspiration to me.
3. Define yourself as a human being using three adjectives.
Contemplative, enthusiastic, caustic.
4. According to your vision, where is contemporary art going and where would you like it to go?
This new marriage between contemporary art and new technologies (nft, crypto...) finds me a bit skeptical, we are losing sight of the very function of art, which should return to its original paradigm, i.e. that of acting as competitor of the divine and to ensure that it is enjoyed by those who are not satisfied with life as it is.
FEW WORDS ABOUT HIS WORK
Nicola Bertellotti was born in Pietrasanta in 1976. After studying History at the University of Pisa he began to travel the world trying to rediscover the past glory of forgotten places. What emerges in his aesthetics is the nostalgia of paradise lost, expressed in the love of ruins, and the re-proposition of decadent poetics in a photographic key. Self-taught, he takes his images in natural light using a medium format digital camera. In 2014 he published the book "Phenomenology of the End", for the Petrartedizioni publishing house. He has exhibited in various contemporary art galleries and museums; among the main exhibitions: “Hic sunt dracones”, Castel dell'Ovo, Naples (2016); “The Great Beauty”, Pärnu Museum, Estonia (2019); “Paradise Lost”, Estella Gallery, New Orleans (2021). His works are present in various public and private collections and have appeared in prestigious magazines, including: Esquire, Espoarte, Arte, Artedossier, Elle Decor, Daily Mail, Bild, Milieu Magazine. In 2021 he is on the official billboard of the Brescia Photo Festival with "Sipario", a project on the abandonment of places of culture. In 2022 he won the Trento Art Festival, the Golden Plate for photography at the Arte/Cairo Editore Prize and published his second book "In Absentia" for the English publishing house Snap Collective Publishing. In 2023 he participates in two international group exhibitions: "Inventarium" at the Reial Cercle Artisticìc in Barcelona and "This is not the end" in the Residence of the Italian Embassy in Bern.
