A WORK ABOUT WAR FASCINATION ON DAILY LIFE
War and normality are two situations calling each other, by contrast.
The closer we get to the intersecting point of these two sets, the more we realize that the border between them is constantly violated. Now more than ever.
The closer we get to the intersecting point of these two sets, the more we realize that the border between them is constantly violated. Now more than ever.
Bombing scenes broadcast live during the First Gulf War and the shots from remote-controlled drones during certain key air operations, images that were captured by action cams placed on military helmets and those by guerrilla groups, all with an increasingly social purpose: mass media keep on pouring on the observer (viewer, reader, navigator) images from battlefields from all over the world.
The idea of war creeps into our lives, we accept and refuse it, distort the brutality and borrow its components, we let ourselves be attracted by this iconography and its rituals.
Whether you believe it or not, while this kind of bulimia in representing violence overflows, Antonio Campanella has been moved by the increasing amount of people fascinated by the military world, although they are aware of all the atrocities it is fed up with: children playing with toy soldiers, adults collecting military models, war games and Softair (a game based on extremely realistic military tactics).
In a period when boundaries between war and peace mission, fundamentalist violence and the right to defense are increasingly debated, a kind of one-off horror happens between real violence and pretence game.
Despite the framing remains far from the battlefields, portraits of the series Shall we play a game? prove how much military influence our lives.
Despite the framing remains far from the battlefields, portraits of the series Shall we play a game? prove how much military influence our lives.
They are the result of an acurate narrative action transforming each photograph into a document. It’s hard to determine the boundary between investigation of empirical reality, (sometimes historical and social) and sensitivity attentive to details and more subtle, personal meanings: they equally and energetically push each other and composition is perfect.
Antonio Campanella
© Antonio Campanella - Shall We Play a Game?
© Antonio Campanella - Shall We Play a Game?
© Antonio Campanella - Shall We Play a Game?
© Antonio Campanella - Shall We Play a Game?
© Antonio Campanella