Olivo Barbieri's 'Il disegno dell’acqua' Captures Mantua's Dualities

Olivo Barbieri (born 1954 in Carpi) has published a new photobook, 'Il disegno dell’acqua,' released by Fondazione Banca Agricola Mantovana with Peliti Editore in 2022. The volume focuses on Mantua and its surrounding territory, a project that leaves only Australia and Myanmar for Barbieri to have completed a global photographic survey. Andrea Cortellessa contributes a scholarly introduction, drawing on Jurgis Baltrušaitis's essay 'Aberrazioni' to analyze Barbieri's work. The book emphasizes the theme of the double, a hallmark of Barbieri's practice, through images that employ color in a technological, dreamlike manner, creating parallels between different visions of the same reality. The photographs synthesize Barbieri's evolution from a language influenced by Luigi Ghirri to a distinctive personal code, reading a territory rich in Virgilian, Renaissance, and Baroque evocations—Borgo Eneide is a clear example. Art history appears in details rather than total reproductions: landscapes become backdrops for paintings, buildings part of them. Barbieri's eye captures the baroque inherent in nature, with extraordinary ceilings forming a separate chapter. The images reflect a land of both peasant and cultured traditions, from Palazzo Ducale to Palazzo Te to churches by Leon Battista Alberti. The book includes early photographs by a young Barbieri taken in the same areas. Priced at €40, ISBN 9788889412824, the publication is available through the Fondazione BAM website.