Fabio Spolti's AI-Generated Photobook Reimagines Gaucho Imagery in Contemporary Culture

Fabio Spolti's photobook 'Livro dos gauchos imaginários' uses artificial intelligence to examine the gaucho figure's evolving symbolism in modern society. Selected for the 2025 ZUM/IMS Photobook Call, this visual essay draws inspiration from Jorge Luis Borges's 'Livro dos seres imaginários' while exploring how identity markers become contested and reinvented through popular culture and capitalist transformations. Traditional elements like horses, rural landscapes, and freedom myths appear alongside urban fashion references, creating tension between historical and contemporary representations. In an interview with researchers Gabryella Roque and Laura Sapucaia, Spolti discusses his creative process, other artistic productions, and the connection between his daily life scenes and the imaginative world permeating his work. Roque, a 2001-born São Paulo designer and researcher, joined Revista ZUM's team as an intern in 2025 while studying at USP's Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism. Sapucaia, born in 2002 in São Paulo, became an intern in IMS's Contemporary Art department in 2024 while pursuing Visual Arts studies at ECA-USP. The project investigates how this iconic figure accumulates identity symbols open to reinterpretation through shifting traditions.