'The Automaton' is based on a story told to Paolo Ventura as a child. It centres on an elderly, Jewish watchmaker living in the Venice ghetto in 1943, one of the darkest periods of the Nazi occupation and the rule of the fascist regime in Italy. The city where the watchmaker has lived his entire life, now desolate and fearful, is the stage on which the story unfolds. The old man decides to build an automaton (a robot), to keep him company while he awaits the arrival of the fascist police who will deport the last of the remaining Jews from the ghetto. Paolo Ventura is internationally known for the complex creative process he adopts. Having created the narrative script for the book, he then builds elaborate models and miniature figurines in his studio and incorporates them in what appear as almost film sets. These are then photographed and his final artworks are the photographs of these constructed tableaux. 'The Automaton' is a photographic narrative from beginning to end.
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Paolo Ventura's work has been exhibited widely throughout Europe and the States. Currently he has three exhibitions of his work on show; in the Italian national pavilion at the Arsenale at the Venice Biennale; in the exhibition 'Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities' at the Museum of Art and Design, New York and at the Hasted Kraeutler Gallery, New York. His works have been acquired by prominent public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., Maison Europeen de la Photographie, Paris and the Martin Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida. Two monographs of Paolo Ventura's work have been published: War Souvenir (Contrasto, 2006) and Winter Stories (Aperture and Contrasto, 2009). He is also included in the new publication Photographic Memory: The Album in the Age of Photography (Aperture / Library of Congress, 2011). Born in Milan, Paolo Ventura currently lives and works in New York.
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Art and words tell story of a mechanical robot who "lives" with his owner in Venice during the Fascist occupation
6 Jan 2013
By Steven I. Ramm
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
The title of this book peaked my attention because I have a fascination with mechanical music devices and many automations make sounds. They may be mechanical birds or mechanical devices attached to a music box. Automatons - basically a mechanical "robot" - became widely known in 2011 with the Academy Award willing film "Hugo".
The author of this slim - 52-page - hardbound book is a painter who was born in Milan in 1968 (and apparently still lives in Italy). Alternating pages have a short bit of text and face a full page color illustration. The story is simple and takes place during the German invasion and occupation of Venice during World War II. It is not unlike that of the story told by Anne Frank - though much much shorter. As I followed the story and seeing where the author would take us, I hoped for a positive ending (if anything about war can have a truly positive ending) and felt a lump in my throat when I got to the last page.
Whether I will return to the book again is another question but it does - like the Automaton in "Hugo - put some humanness in a mechanical robot.
I hope you found this review both informative and helpful.
Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"
The author of this slim - 52-page - hardbound book is a painter who was born in Milan in 1968 (and apparently still lives in Italy). Alternating pages have a short bit of text and face a full page color illustration. The story is simple and takes place during the German invasion and occupation of Venice during World War II. It is not unlike that of the story told by Anne Frank - though much much shorter. As I followed the story and seeing where the author would take us, I hoped for a positive ending (if anything about war can have a truly positive ending) and felt a lump in my throat when I got to the last page.
Whether I will return to the book again is another question but it does - like the Automaton in "Hugo - put some humanness in a mechanical robot.
I hope you found this review both informative and helpful.
Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"
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