© Vincenzo Pagliuca from the series 'Bunker'

Vincenzo Pagliuca's work unravels like a long thread on the theme of living as an occurrence within human existence. This journey starts with the project 'North Naples - Roma houses' that depicts the instability full of life, family, and all those needs and habits that make us feel at home - such as clothes hanging, the colored walls, the photographs. Then it arrives at the emptiness of the solitary structures in "monos", giants portrayed in their ontological bewilderment, to now reach the bunkers. Observing these silent photographs, the first thing that comes to mind are the animal dens, those shelters that, more than a dwelling, refer to survival, to a remote time in which life was questioned daily. In a certain sense, the memory of some events, such as the tragedy of the World Wars, only reminds us how our contemporary existence, apparently taken for granted, is nothing more than a parenthesis in a much more unstable and uncertain discourse. A discourse that, with ever-increasing urgency, needs to be addressed. Looking at your previous works, you get the feeling that you are guided by a single motive, albeit complex and articulated. How did you approach such particular structures as bunkers, and what meaning do they assume within your research?

Vincenzo Pagliuca (VP): The first contact with the bunkers dates back to summer 2018 in South Tyrol. During an artistic residency (TiefKollektiv - ProfondoCollettivo, curated by Michele Fucich) in Glorenza, in the upper Val Venosta, I was soon attracted by the imposing reinforced concrete caps visible among the apple orchards just outside the medieval village. I stayed near those structures for a long time, fascinated by how, despite their monolithic presence, they have become an integral part of the landscape; the locals do not seem to pay particular attention to it, and a thin layer of vegetation covers them. In some cases, the bunkers have been converted into agricultural warehouses and cellars. Later I learned about the approximately 350 fortification works scattered in the autonomous province of Bolzano, so I decided to take the photographic research on a wider territorial scale, visiting several dozen sites over two years. In its own way, the project continues the research undertaken with mónos on archetypal images of inhabiting.

© Vincenzo Pagliuca from the series 'Bunker'

© Vincenzo Pagliuca from the series 'Bunker'

In your recent interview for Urbanautica, you underlined how the house becomes a projection of those who live it, an extension of it until being capable of life and singularity. Your monoliths are portraits in all respects, they are faces, emotions, sensitivity, and characters, and you show enormous respect for them, not giving in to stereotyped and excessive stories. You do the same with bunkers, even if to some extent you force them to come out of their intrinsic shyness, as they are also made not to be noticed. Although they too emerge in their peculiarities, their relationship with human beings is radically different; more based on emergency. What has emerged from your exploration, what have you learned? Is there anyone you are particularly fond of?

VP: At a first level of observation, the bunkers strike us for their architectural singularity. It's interesting to observe their construction features and ingenious camouflage systems that vary according to the orography of the landscape. Indeed, each of them has its own peculiarities and are often so well camouflaged that is difficult to identify their appearence even from a short distance. However, as I measured myself with these structures, I noticed the possibility of opening up to the imagination to recall primordial forms in direct connection with the figure. I am talking about oneiric houses, caves, dens, and shelters, images endowed with symbolic value for all human beings and able to establish a dialogue with our unconscious. I am particularly fond of some of them for the experience lived in their research; these led me to explore a territory unknown to me and its imposing nature.

© Vincenzo Pagliuca from the series 'Bunker'

A thin veil of melancholy crosses your images, and the structures you tell seem alive and waiting for someone to collect their stories. In an age in which there is less room for memory, and it looks as arguments must revolve only around the future and progress, you create a fracture and open space to the past, showing as a present full of possibilities. Thinking about the recent pandemic, then, which brought our lives back to the idea of ​​urgency and danger, your bunkers become tremendously current, demonstrating how - with the critical differences - history reminds us of our precariousness.

VP: Your observations touch on two aspects that are important to me. On the one hand, the interest in the signs of human activity in the landscape and how they accumulate and settle in the environment that surrounds us; through these the landscape tells us about the companies that produced them and provides us with valuable insights to observe the contemporary and interpret the present. On the other hand, a veil of melancholy is attributable to the particular atmosphere accompanying images and the condition of emptiness. A state that, starting with mónos, is at the center of my reflections. Emptiness then as a means of signification that favors contemplation and allows us to understand space better. Quoting Espuelas, "the observer's gaze charges the empty space he observes with meaning." So my subjects immediately place themselves in a dimension of absence and nostalgia and resonance, possibility, and expectation.

© Vincenzo Pagliuca from the series 'Bunker'

What is your relationship with history and memory, how do they dialogue within your projects?

VP: More than on memory in the strict sense, I am interested in dwelling on a more archaic component of the collective unconscious. It would be implausible to work on a subject like the fortifications of the Second World War while ignoring their historical and memorial weight. The bunkers are witnesses of a dramatic past, which makes them guardians of the collective memory, a heritage to be safeguarded—an important aspect, which joins the other architectural and symbolic ones that characterize them. The bunkers thus reveal themselves to be a culturally complex legacy, simultaneously singular constructions, which with their aesthetics have marked the architecture of the '900, but also monuments to human frailty, relics of an era marked by nationalist ideologies and oneiric dwellings. They are coming from a near past or perhaps a distant future.

© Vincenzo Pagliuca from the series 'Bunker'

© Vincenzo Pagliuca from the series 'Bunker'

Yours appears as a rigorous work striking for the care of the photographs, their precision. How did you develop your authorial path, and how do you choose the means and times for your projects?

VP: Thank you for your words. My authorial path started from a more traditionally documentary approach which later evolved into a reflective dimension. Starting from 'North Naples - Case Roma', the working method has remained the same, based on the continuous return to the places photographed, on the complete immersion in the context, which generally takes a long time, and on the search for a solid visual uniformity.
An important turning point in my training was the participation, from 2015 to 2017, in the Irregular Laboratory curated by Antonio Biasiucci. A training course that takes place in the heart of the historic center of Naples and remains unique: the artist, every two years, selects and follows a group of eight young photographers, guiding them in the production of their research projects. The method I learned during that experience, based on introspection and self-discipline, has remained a very precious gift.

Each project is learning. What did you achieve of importance with regards to your language and its maturation? How does this all fit in with your future projects and your dialogue on the inhabiting's dimensions?

VP: In the past years, I directed my efforts to the search for a method that would allow me to put the photographic medium in straight connection with my inner world. The ideas and motivations and memorable experiences, such as that of the Irregular Laboratory, relate to observing the landscape and the bond raising from these places catching my eyes. In 'Mónos,' that method has reached a good level of maturation by structuring itself in a vision that, while remaining rigorous, remains open and leaves room for the imagination. My recent research continues in that direction, trying to investigate, through a free comparison with the theme of inhabiting, our relationship with the world in its most archaic meanings.

© Vincenzo Pagliuca from the series 'Bunker'

LINKS
Vincenzo Pagliuca (website)