HE GREW UP IN THE FOG - Angelo Bonetti
Angelo Bonetti (b. 1976, Turin, Italy) is a visual artist who works with photography, mainly a self-taught photographer who over the years has pursued and developed his own language. Bonetti creates works that generate different contents, associations and meanings that come into conflict. Space becomes time and language becomes image. His works have a strong vision in the approach to life and its everyday life, a continuous interest in what surrounds him, deepening themes such as memory, time and the connections of his personal stories, questioning the conditions of appearance of images, representations and ideas in the context of the contemporary visual culture in which they normally work.
For Fresh Eyes 2022 Angelo Bonetti presented his project He grew up in the fog. The project is a photographic investigation into time and personal memory. As stated by Bonetti, this project was a result of the diverse emotions he felt. An accumulation of sadness, anxiety, fear, shame, restlessness, and nostalgia created a sense of loss in his body. Through images ranging from abstract collages, family images, and portraits to nature, Bonetti explores a perpetual state of loss he was left with. The photographer breaks down the narrative of his life into singular moments, letting the viewer experience his multilayered imagination.
Bonetti weaves together memories of the past with scenes from the present. Presented in this way both are connected into one continuous timeline. As a final result, all of the images unite into a narrative of Bonetti’s mental landscape. He grew up in the fog is not a form of escapism in the world of dreams, but a way of diving into it. Working on this project was a way for him to process the emotions which caused his memories to blur. Our understanding of his state is broadened by images of text. One of them states “[the past] “that I have not lived or that I do not remember but I know there was, has vanished into the darkness of memory [...]”. Instead of turning away from his feelings, he pursues photography to recall his past and create connections between then and now. Following this trajectory enabled him to access the painful thoughts and move on.
Images from the series were taken in Morocco, the USA, Italy, Iceland, and South Africa. He grew up in the fog title check does not show the characteristic signs of each location. This prevents the viewer from forming associations and lets our imagination guide us through the visuals. Bonetti pieces together separate images creating in the end an effect similar to a cinematic montage. Grey tones predominate in the series, but the presence of brighter colours uplifts the narrative into dreamlike storytelling. Some images retain their colours like the family moments, yet most of the characters of the series are engulfed in greyness. Some images are distorted making them appear as hazy. Others, such as portraits, are presented in sharp focus. Moments of sharpness create a gap between people and their surroundings. The dreamlike narrative is strengthened in images depicting sceneries detached from the ground where people are wandering in the snow-covered mountains or levitating in the sky. Seemingly lost in space or time, works become invitations to step into another world.