Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino was written by Manuel Blanco, Alberto Campo Baeza, and Marvin Heiferman. Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino is a multi-year project by Italian photographer Marco Anelli, commissioned by Magazzino founders Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. Anelli’s portfolio documents Magazzino Italian Art’s construction process in its entirety—from its conceptualization in 2014 to its transformation from an industrial building into one dedicated to an extraordinary collection of Italian Art.
During the construction process, Anelli regularly photographed Magazzino’s worksite with unrestricted access, in the daylight and at night, season after season. Scholar and photography historian Marvin Heiferman notes, “Anelli’s carefully composed photographs are not strictly documentary images, as they incorporate elements of landscape and still life photography into the mix, as well as touches of poetry and humor. Ultimately, these images communicate not a clear-cut chronology, but a rumination on process, a fascination with the rhythm of work, and, most of all, Anelli’s desire to make pictures that are more meditative than spectacular.”
As a result of his inclusive approach, the photographer’s intimate vision unfolds in time, offering a constant dialogue between architecture, landscape and the workers. The photographs on display comprise a selection from the comprehensive body of work featured in the book Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino, Magazzino Italian Art’s first editorial project, published by Skira Rizzoli in 2017.
Exhibition Schedule: Italian Cultural Institute of New York: October 4 - November 2, 2017; The Alice Curtis Desmond and Hamilton Fish Library, June 1 - 17, 2018; Embassy of Italy in Washington D.C., October 11 - November 6, 2018.
Library of Congress Control Number
2017946203
© 2017 MIA–Magazzino Italian Art
About the Artist
Marco Anelli is a Roman-born, New York-based photographer. After specializing in black and white photography and printing techniques in Paris, he started working on photographic projects that evolve over long periods of time. His publications include works on sculpture and architecture (Shadow and Light, Silvana Publisher 1999; All’Ombra del Duomo, Contrasto 2010), sport (Il Calcio, Motta Publisher 2002; Pallacorda, Skira 2004) and classical music (La Musica Immaginata, Motta Publisher 2004; The Gestures of the Spirit, Peliti Publisher 2011). In 2010 he took portraits of 1,545 participants in Marina Abramović’s performance at the MoMA (Portraits in the Presence of Marina Abramović, Damiani Publisher 2010). Since 2011 he’s been exploring the character of the artist and their work as expressed in their studio. Something Wicked This Way Comes is a project that leads the viewer into the creative process of worldwide famous artists such as Matthew Barney, Lawrence Weiner, Cecily Brown, Urs Fischer, Elizabeth Peyton, Julian Schnabel, Vito Acconci and others. In 2015 he completed A Simple Story, his project on the construction of the new Whitney Museum of American Art. New York’s architecture, building sites and their workers are the subjects of his most recent research. He lives and works in New York City.
About the Contributors
Vittorio Calabrese is the Director of Magazzino Italian Art. Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu are the co-founders of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation. Manuel Blanco is an architect, curator, and professor at the School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM). Alberto Campo Baeza is an architect and professor at ETSAM. Marvin Heiferman is an American curator and writer.