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On the plains of Emilia in Northern Italy, there still exist buildings that have no apparent architectural merit and don’t attract anyone’s attention: these derelict farmhouses lie dotted around the countryside, waiting only for someone to rediscover them. In an era when forgetting has become a habit, Giancarlo Pradelli invites us once again to enjoy the pleasures of silence and absence. He adopts the viewpoint of the observer who, in spite of the melancholy of a rural culture that has all but disappeared in the modern world, knows how to convey the dignity of objects created by man. Spare, direct black-and-white pictures that have nothing rhetorical about them. Using the play of the light and carefully balanced compositions, the skeletal shapes reveal buildings transformed by their dereliction, but which in the process have acquired an unwonted grace and elegance.

Giancarlo Pradelli was born in 1966 and lives and works in Modena. He has worked for Life, The Times, Photo, Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Specchio. His photographs are included in the collections of the Bibliothéque Nationale, in Paris, and in CSAC (Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione) at the University of Parma. He has published Eolie (2005), Pierluigi Gianda (2006), and Sutor Mantellassi (2011) with 5 Continents Editions.

Andrea Emiliani is an art critic and former head of the Emilia Romagna office of the Ministry of Historical and Artistic Heritage and Director of the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna. He has taught art history and museology at the University of Bologna. He is currently honorary inspector of museum teaching in the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Events and has collaborated in the reorganization of several museums.