NEW YORK, NY.- Magazzino Italian Art, the new art warehouse space in the Hudson Valley dedicated to Post-war and Contemporary Italian Art, announces Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino, a multi-year photographic portfolio by Italian photographer Marco Anelli, commissioned by Magazzino founders Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. A curated selection of Marco Anelli’s photographs will be presented at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York (ICI), inaugurating the Institute’s fall season.

Anelli’s portfolio documents Magazzino Italian Art’s construction process in its entirety—from its conceptualization in 2014 to its transformation from an industrial building into a warehouse dedicated to an extraordinary collection of Italian Art. The exhibition, co-organized by the ICI and Magazzino Italian Art, is curated by Magazzino’s Director Vittorio Calabrese and will feature 24 large-format photographs displayed in the Institute’s galleries. The ground floor gallery will present a selection of photographs depicting the different phases of the construction, subtly referencing the passing of time in a juxtaposition of void and materiality, finished and unfinished, detail and the whole. The foyer and the first-floor gallery will be dedicated to some of the portraits Anelli realized during the past two years at Magazzino, shown at a near lifesize scale.

The photographs on display comprise a selection from the comprehensive body of work featured in the forthcoming book Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino, Magazzino Italian Art’s first editorial project, to be published by Skira Rizzoli and available in bookstores November 2017.

Over the past two years, Anelli regularly photographed the worksite, with unrestricted access, in the daylight and at night, season after season. The balanced beauty of his photographs captures the passing of time, the fleeting feeling of impermanence and change with a distinguished calmness and serenity, apparent in contrast with the subject of the images themselves. Anelli’s photographs tell the story of Magazzino and the power of art to make us imagine and build, with a unique attention to the people whose work was commissioned to create a place devoted to the work of others. Anelli’s portfolio, in fact, aims not only at documenting the creation of Magazzino Italian Art, but also at recording and portraying the unique human emotions and experiences of the people who made it possible—thus becoming, by all means, an art project in its own right.

“We at Magazzino Italian Art are honored to have commissioned and now present the photographic work of Marco Anelli,” states Magazzino founders, Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. “Not only did he follow the various stages of construction, but he also captured the instrumental people devoted to this project in the most elegant and soulful way over the past few years.” 

Director of Magazzino Italian Art Vittorio Calabrese states: “Marco’s photographs are more than a document of Magazzino’s creation. The expansiveness of Marco’s approach, which embraces the project of Magazzino in all its human and material aspects, is a fitting tribute to the founders, Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. The intricate ecosystem of artists, designers, builders, and researchers that Nancy and Giorgio have fostered is revealed in minute detail through the medium of Marco’s pictures.”

Unique to other photographic projects narrating the construction of art institutions—like those realized for the Louvre (Paris) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York)—Anelli’s work expands its gaze from the raw, inanimate elements to the human presence. The construction workers are portrayed throughout the building phases without any artifice, but with great honesty and respect.

As a result of his inclusive approach, the photographer’s intimate vision unfolds in time, proposing a constant dialogue between architecture, landscape and the workers. As pointed out by Marvin Heiferman, scholar and photography historian, in his essay featured in Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino:

“Anelli’s carefully composed photographs […] are not strictly documentary images, as they incorporate elements of landscape and still life photography into the mix, as well as touches of poetry and humor. Ultimately, these images communicate not a clear-cut chronology, but a rumination on process, a fascination with the rhythm of work, and, most of all, Anelli’s desire to make pictures that are more meditative than spectacular.”