Limited Edition The Beautiful Cliché – Venezia

Finally a book on Venice without gondolette, silvery reflections, romantic glimpses of canals and bridges and everything else that provides the perfect tourist measure for selling a city known as “the most beautiful in the world.” D’Agostin’s eye is certainly more sensitive than the emulsion or apparatus of his camera, and this is a crucial talent in the field of photography – Italo Zannier

“Venetian Heritage is very proud to be associated with Renato D’Agostin on this project. His photographs of Venice show the city in a totally new light. Our hope is that through this body of work, the beauty of the city will continue to inspire generations to come.” – Pierre Durand, President Venetian Heritage

The photography book The Beautiful Cliché – Venezia will be released worldwide March 2012 with preface by Renata Codello, Superintendent for the Cultural Heritage and Landscape of Venice and the Lagoon, and texts by curator and photo historian, Italo Zannier, and curator, Chiara Casarin.

Renato D’Agostin’s work explores possibilities of a different sort: it unveils the best known architectural sites of Venice, such as St Mark’s Square, by making them the object of a striking primary analysis, whereby the outlines of the architectural volumes fade away without losing their weight; space is made the object of endless interpretations, yet all reflecting the author’s vision; the details of the buildings necessarily point to the whole structures; the lagoon horizon is traced by the ideal profiles of the islands and by the dots of the mooring posts, without being conditioned by them. This is not simply a book of photographs, then, but a collection of possible “visions” of the city. – Renata Codello, Superintendent for the Cultural Heritage and Landscape of Venice and the Lagoon.

Venetian Heritage will offer 200 advance publication copies of The Beautiful Cliché – Venezia ($60). Limited Edition copies including an 8×10 inch silver gelatin print will also be available ($500). The proceeds from this exhibition will be used to benefit the restoration projects of Venetian Heritage Inc.

To reserve a copy please email venicebook@statepr.com or call +1 (646) 714-2520.

The Beautiful Cliché – Venezia is Underwritten by Venetian Heritage Inc., under the Patronage of Provincia di Venezia and Cittá di San Doná di Piave, in collaboration with MC2 Gallery Milan, Galerie Photo 4 Paris, Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Monastier e del Sile, with technical support from Sprint Systems of Photography.

The Beautiful Cliché – Venezia is published by Silvana Editoriale, printed in Italy, Amilcare Pizzi. Hardcover, 112 pages, 23.8 x 33 cm. Text in English, Italian, French and Japanese.

Upcoming exhibitions of The Beautiful Cliché – Venezia: Paris, France, November 3, 2011 at the Galerie Photo 4; Milan, Italy, January 2012 at MC2 Gallery; Madrid, Spain, February 2012 at Galeria Rita Castellote; Singapore, April 2012 at Gallery 2902; Venice, Italy, September 2012 at Palazzo Ducale.

Review copies, interview requests, high-resolution images, and excerpts available upon request. For all media inquiries contact Kristina Ratliff at +1 (646) 714-2520 or via email at kristina@statepr.com.

During New York Fashion Week S/S 2012 Brooklyn based designer Suzanne Rae presented her upcoming spring collection. Some of the photographs from Tokyo Untitled were used by Suzanne Rae to create unique fabrics for several of the collection pieces.

“The inspiration for Suzannne Rae spring/summer 2012 is nostalgia for a simpler time amidst the constant search of identity in this rapidly changing world. Turning to 19th century Japan and collaborating with photographer Renato D’Agostin and his body of work Tokyo Untitled, the collection reflects a modest era with a zen-like quality that is at the same time optimistic for a better tomorrow.”

www.suzannerae.com

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The acclaimed beauty of Venice is perhaps among the best known and most distinguishing features of the city.
“Postcard” shots of it are just as common: stereotypical pictures reproducing unique and incomparable landmarks that are promoted through the endless repetition of the same images.
It would seem, therefore, that little or nothing remains to be discovered in the lagoon city, which is so strongly conditioned by its own legend.
Renato D’Agostin’s work explores possibilities of a different sort: it unveils the best known architectural sites of Venice, such as St Mark’s Square, by making them the object of a striking primary analysis, whereby the outlines of the architectural volumes fade away without losing their weight; space is made the object of endless interpretations, yet all reflecting the author’s vision; the details of the buildings necessarily point to the whole structures; the lagoon horizon is traced by the ideal profiles of the islands and by the dots of the mooring posts, without being conditioned by them.
…
What transpires is a drive towards the future that transcends the means of photography, aspiring to discover horizons and paths that are still concealed. This approach fully brings out the liveliness of places, their powerful capacity of being perceived by millions of visitors – regardless of the extent to which they are understood – in always different and constantly renewed ways.

From the preface by Renata Codello, Superintendent for the Cultural Heritage and Landscape of Venice and the Lagoon.

In TokyoUntitled D’Agostin isolates himself in the geometries of the Japanese city. He narrates his journey through his experience of the street, describing with the language of abstract images, charged of deep blacks and sharp edges. Dislocating subjects from their realities, D’Agostin depicts his perception of the space around him, the relationship between the city’s architecture and its people, and their interferences. This is emphasized in Tokyo, according to D’Agostin, where he has no reference or connection with the external world, and his sense of disconnection brings him to a discovery of the unseen.

“Tokyo Untitled” photographs bring me back to the destroyed Tokyo as it appeared right after the war ended. It may be totally impossible for young Renato to imagine that his “Tokyo Untitled” reminds me of such tragic images as Tokyo’s air raid attack which happened 64 years ago.
— Eikoh Hosoe.

These images are the thinnest possible slices of inconceivable urban density. Slices so thin that they must be measured in fractions of light, tiny microscopic moments of DNA in time taken from the huge archeology of a true metropolis.
— Ralph Gibson.

Afterwords: Eikoh Hosoe, Ralph Gibson
Publisher: MC2 Gallery Edizioni, Milan,
Printed in Italy, Amilcare Pizzi
Publication Date: November 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-88-904380-0-4
Design: Heartfelt Milan
Printrun: 2000
Hardcover, 88 pages, 23.8 x 33 cm
Available In English, Japanese, Italian, and French
Price: 180 US$

Limited Edition Tokyo Untitled book with 8×10 in. Silver Gelatin Print in slipcase box.
5 subjects available. Each subject in edition of 5.
Each print signed, numbered and dated in pencil on the recto.

For any additional info, price and availability please contact rena@renatodagostin.com