Giacomo Costa's TIME(e)SCAPES: From Still Photography to Moving Image

Giacomo Costa (born 1970, Florence) presents TIME(e)SCAPES, a project where his photographic works evolve into moving images. The artist's 'videoboxes' (a neologism for hybrid lightbox-videomonitor works) feature frames that change every 10 seconds, creating loops lasting from 1 hour 15 minutes to 5 hours 20 minutes. The series depicts collapsing buildings, boiling waters, desert corrugations, geological fissures, volcanic eruptions, and architectural ruins overtaken by vegetation. Costa's solo exhibition opened in October at Guidi&Schoen gallery in Genoa, followed by the group show 'Carte d’identità' in late November, where he presented his first analog drawing, 'Studio per atmosfera'. Costa began photographing at age 18 in the mountains, opened a commercial studio in Florence at 22, and created his first artwork at 26 in 1996 by blending traditional photography with digital technology. His series 'Agglomerati' debuted at Arte Fiera in Bologna and Artissima in Turin; 'Agglomerati n.9' (1997) was acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2006. Costa cites influences from dystopian cinema like Blade Runner, Matrix, Hunger Games, and Maze Runner. He argues that the absence of humans in his works is apparent, as architecture and urbanism represent humanity. He views nature as a vast, contemplative dimension where humans are mere spectators, and catastrophe is aesthetically present in his work.