Lorenzo Vitturi
"Dalston Anatomy"

Until 22 June, 2015

ARTIST TALK: Thursday, 18 June, 7 pm

Dalston Anatomy is a visual ode to Dalston, as a unique place where different cultures merge together in a celebration of life, diversity and unstoppable energy.

I felt compelled to capture this place at its rawest and most beautiful state, with all its flaws and smells before it too is transformed and disappears altogether, as time moves forward. Dalston Anatomy is a multi-faceted project where photography, sculpture, installation and performance merge together.

Started 3 years ago and initially presented as a photo book, Dalston Anatomy centers in East London’s Ridley Road Market during a time of accelerated transformation.

The project stems from my compulsion to collect and still the area’s distinctive nature before it is gentrified beyond recognition. The debris I was collecting from the Ridley Road market for the production of my sculptures was not just ordinary trash, but it was in fact what was left of old flats and people’s lives and parts of those interiors that were being refurbished for the arrival of a new class of individuals.

Instead of criticising gentrification I was interested in visualising what this process of transformation will leave behind. What soon will be seen as memories and debris from a lost time. I wanted to freeze Dalston’s colourful mix of cultures just before this transformation changes the neighbourhood’s appearance completely. In my personal view, the reality of today is too complex to be depicted by a series of framed pictures hung on a white wall.

Consequently, exhibitions should be a totalizing experience, where the space merges with the artwork and vice versa. For this reason I feel the need to create a multi-layered exhibition, where images play with the space, with objects, raw materials, dust and fluff. In my previous shows I tried to physically rebuild the magic encounter between the outward social reality of the project and my most intimate, personal visions.

Text by Lorenzo Vitturi

Lorenzo Vitturi (b. Venice, 1980) is a photographer and sculptor based in London. Formerly a cinema set painter, Vitturi has brought this experience into his artistic practice, which revolves around playful site-specific interventions at the intersection of photography, sculpture and performance.

Vitturi’s Dalston Anatomy was selected in 2013 for the “Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation PhotoBook” Awards, and simultaneously shown at FOAM 3h in Amsterdam. Vitturi was awarded the Grand Prix of the Photography Jury at Hyères Festival in 2014, and was invited to realize the campaign for Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam. Vitturi’s latest "Dalston Anatomy" solo exhibitions were presented at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York City and at Contact Photography Festival in Toronto, Canada.