Marco Maria Zanin: Photography as Humanistic Inquiry

Marco Maria Zanin describes his photography as a tool for humanistic investigation, capable of engaging with broader interdisciplinary contexts. His early series 'Cattedrali rurali' (2012) and 'São Paulo' (2013) represent opposing archetypes: the former rooted in Veneto's rural traditions, the latter capturing the dynamism of São Paulo's urban landscape. Zanin views this contrast as a deliberate exercise in 'dislocamento,' forcing himself to move between radically different contexts. In 'Lacuna e equilibrio' (2015), he photographs debris from demolished buildings in São Paulo, arranging them in still lifes that reference Giorgio Morandi's painting. The work explores themes of memory, destruction, and the possibility of constructing alternative futures from ruins. His recent series 'Os Argonautas' connects the myth of Jason and the Argonauts to the migration of Veneto peasants in the late 19th century, using interviews with descendants and found objects to reconstruct fragmented histories. The image 'Carvalho' (Portuguese for 'oak') features a castle built from old family photographs, symbolizing the fragility of memory and the concept of 'demonumento'—starting from zero to reverse the entropy of history. Zanin's practice consistently engages with roots, displacement, and the tension between tradition and modernity.