Parallel Lines: Sky Arts
© Gian Paolo Barbieri
Written by Federica Belli
When considering the importance of those professional figures who empower artists by giving them a space and by guiding their work towards the public that could most benefit from seeing it, one cannot neglect those professionals who give life to high quality documentation of the revolutionary artists’ lives. As most artists can testify, the work of an art stems most often from a life that aims itself to become art; too often in history, however, the story and the vicissitudes of the artists’ recounting our times have been lost in the rain of events. And just like magazines and books have long been the written testimony of these stories, since photographs and video recordings have become the main documentary language, Sky Arts has been the hub of curators, producers, scenographers and many other professionals who devote their time to the recording and narration of how artists have brought their masterpieces to life.
After all, pain and sorrows, reflection and enlightenment, revolutionary love and technical advancements are the raw material that artists sublimate in so many unexpected ways towards their art. And it is precisely their pain and sorrows, reflection and enlightenment, revolutionary love and technical advancements that, lost in history until now, make up the documentaries produced by this broadcaster. All those questions that photographers somehow end up asking themselves at any exhibition by that photographer they admire can only be answered through the photographer’s life. How did she face the difficulties of being a female photographer in a patriarchal society? How could he spot the perfect subjects for such an intimate series? How could they move to different nations so often for their work, and still remain true to their voice?
Mustafa Sabbagh
Senza titolo 2012, 100x80-cm
Courtesy of the artist and Museo Boldini Ferrara
Mustafa Sabbagh, Paolo Pellegrin, Guia Besana, Oliviero Toscani, Letizia Battaglia, Mimmo Jodice, Gian Paolo Barbieri. Just some of the photographers investigated and lovingly depicted by the curators at Sky Arts, just some of the photographers who changed our visual culture and thus our whole culture. Just like their work has opened up new perspectives on our place in the world and our possible future, their incredibly varied lives have changed the meaning of being human and facing our society with awareness and open eyes.
In a time that champions the fastest people, the most competitive brains and the social creatures, reconsidering the slow and reflective existence of those brave visionaries who most honestly portrayed our virtues and vices in the past century can be one of the few remedies to our unsustainable lifestyles. Now we can.
