Olivo Barbieri's 'Mountains and Parks' Moves to Instagram During Lockdown

Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri (born 1954 in Carpi) has moved his exhibition 'Mountains and Parks' from Centro Saint-Bénin in Aosta to his Instagram profile after the physical venue closed on April 28 due to the pandemic. The show is part of his lifelong project 'site specific_' (with an underscore indicating its ongoing nature), which explores the blurred boundaries between natural and constructed spaces. Barbieri's work employs selective focus—a technique he pioneered in the early 1990s—to disrupt conventional perspective and reveal hidden layers within images. The exhibition includes photographs of Iguazu Falls (Argentina), the Alps, Canaletto views, and Capri's faraglioni, questioning what constitutes a 'park'—from natural reserves to landfills, museums, and mental codes of nomadic cultures. A conversation between Barbieri and Strega Prize-winning writer Paolo Cognetti, held on the margins of the show, further reflects on the disappearance of uncontaminated nature and its technological domestication, as exemplified by Niagara Falls' nighttime light shows.