Franco Monari

In his “Memorabilia” series of black and white digital photographs on metallic paper Italian born artist Franco Monari draws inspiration from poetry, abstract expressionism, and time spent in communist Poland as a child. Voices and activity once filled these abandoned spaces with sound and movement. Now rooms long untouched, unseen by human eyes quietly take on a life of their own as they slowly fall into disrepair, the discarded objects left behind watching, silently waiting to be absorbed by dust and time.

Through photography Monari finds beauty in desolation, capturing the elegance of the structure. 

The photographs in the exhibition are all part of a series titled "MEMORABILIA", an ongoing work about abandoned buildings. The reason for the subject is partly mysterious to me, but is partly due to my interest in architecture and local history. But the "spark" that leads me to enter the forbidden is to be found in deep within my soul, in my unconscious – perhaps a consequence of a literary education, or the attraction of abstract expressionism. Maybe it’s my continued search for peace; I always preferred silence to noise and in an abandoned building you do not perceive the passage of time. In exploring the buildings I try to not interfere, to move in silence. It is a private matter, between me and the walls, the present and the past. Nothing else matters.