look inside

Andante (last copy)

by Alex Majoli

Photographs: Alex Maioli

Publisher: Cesura Publish

74 pages

Pictures: 40

Year: 2018

Comments: first edition of 750 copies, offset, embossed cover, size: 15x21 cm

Andante is the catalogue of an exhibition that goes from 1985 to 2018, in which the artist Alex Majoli researches the human soul and the most obscure elements of society. The subtle line between reality and theatre, documentary and art, human behaviour and acting is the exact friction that amazes and makes him go back on the streets and in the places where the human condition is put into question. Even in the most tragic of miseries, he is capable to find the pride and, most of all, the greatness of human soul. Majoli can be considered a provocateur for the images he uses: he represents the theatrical dynamics of life, the human actions seem to take inspiration from a theatre show and he emphasizes all the drama of everyday’s life using artificial light. His photos become scenes where people in their “performance/life” express themselves on what becomes an undeclared stage or film set.

The career of Alex Majoli, member of the prestigious Magnum Photos starts very early in the atelier of Casadio and Malanca. It is only after having photographed the closing of the renowned mental institution on the island of Leros in Greece that he finds his identity as an artist, giving birth to his first namesake monography . The initial interest of the artist in the theories of the pioneer of the modern concept of mental health Franco Basaglia, who is also famous for having abolished mental hospitals in Italy, pushes him to go to Brasil, where the theories are enthusiastically adopted. Alex Majoli has photographed the South American country for twenty years, collecting a series of images depicting the complex Brazilian society in the project Tudo bom, which is still in progress.

More books by Alex Majoli