A lesser, outlying Loch Ness, with no media hysteria and a funny name that no one takes too seriously. But also an inner Loch Ness: when fall comes and the houses orphaned by the exodus of tourists put up the “Zimmer Frei” signs, Lake Benaco draws the monster out of its people, it draws out their souls, torn by obsessive thoughts that have been rotting in its still, grey waters. Francesco Biasi’s story floats across iconographic shores, looking for a free port to communicate something beyond ordinary news events or unpretentious socio-anthropological literature. Benny, the weird animal that may have been spotted in the darkness of Lake Benaco, is therefore the alibi for some kind of “walk on water”, a tightrope course of personal quest around the lives and dreams of a community of fishermen, hoteliers and merchants in the dark off-season times. A portrait behind the scenes, with an abundance of ironic and cinematographically fantastical cues; a successful attempt to watch the “dark side” of a moon that most of the year is lit up by the shimmering swarms of foreign visitors and by the jingle jangle of the cash registers. In spite of B-movie quotes, oneiric references and optical distortions, Francesco’s visual story runs smooth, intimate, delicate and sentimental. All the same, the monsters, once unleashed, scamper across the photographs and eventually leave a bluesy aftertaste to this journey through images Because, at the end of the day, what is left of each one of us? What is left of the outpouring of energy to weigh down our souls and our pockets with out of circulation coins? And what does really matter when the last beam of light has been screened by the darkness of night?

Giovanni Ferrò