GIUSEPPE LA SPADA

Visual artist, photographer, and designer, Giuseppe La Spada organized a flash mob this year in Milan with 600 people who gave shape to an enormous human tree, clear confirmation of the artist’s commitment to environmental causes. He was born in Sicily but has long resided in Lombardy’s capital city. He entered the artistic spotlight thanks to his collaborations with Sakamoto and still today, he’s the only Italian who has won a Webby Awards, the Internet's highest honor. Afleur, a video installation which also became a photo book, touches on a taboo topic in contemporary art: Love, with a capital L. As La Spada himself says: «If love were a flower, would it be made of paper or cloth? These are the questions Afleur raises». Nevertheless, no story unravels on the screen.

The techniques used by La Spada in his images, which bear the mark of a photographer’s hand, appear to be simple: slow-motion, overlapping, lap dissolves, manipulation of color to achieve precise tones, freeze-frames. Functional techniques are what create hints of fragility and  absence: atmospheres which aim at rarefaction and in which natural elements like water and flowers as well as female figures reappear, a common trait d’union in many of La Spada’s works.
 

TECHNIQUE

Naturally lit video footage and photographs taken underwater with a digital reflex camera in aluminum underwater housing.

concept, photography, and video by Giuseppe La Spada music con_cetta