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BEHIND THE PICTURE

ENG-ITA


Behind the Picture, 2012-2013. Print on aluminum. 10 elements. X:373cm; Y:84cm overall

To create this work, I selected what I believe to be the ten most emblematic photographs of the last century: famous pictures that have accompanied important political events and are now stuck in our memory. I then decided to open each photo file with Notepad++, trying to visualize the photo as text. The pixels of the image were translated into the alphanumeric ASCII code. This code is a non-intelligible sequence of characters that contains all the information required to recreate the image through an Image Viewer. I copied the code, erasing the picture and simultaneously transforming it into an empty black rectangle. On this rectangle, I then pasted the ASCII code. The size of each picture is decided by the length of the code, while the proportions are the same as those of the original photo. With this technical and conceptual operation, I make explicit what is “behind” the photo, or in some sense, “inside” it. The long lines of text become a series of abstract thin white lines. However, through the title, our memory can still lead us to the original picture.


 


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