reviews

il Quotidiano di Matera, Cultura e Spettacoli. Sunday, 20 March 2005
by GIOVANNI MARTEMUCCI

Opening in Matera, at the Galleria Porta Pepice, one-man show by the photographer Paoli.

A travel diary of images

Photographs recall experiences with different cultures in faraway cities.

MATERA - <<To know how to walk around in the streets and be astonished by what is new, unknown and different is to be present in the world. With awe>>.
These are the words Maurizio Paoli used to condense the spirit that guided him in his travels in India, Marocco, Burma, Peru and Israel, and it is the same spirit that comes through in his 55 snapshots put on exhibit yesterday in Matera at the exhibition space Galleria di Porta Pepice in Via delle Beccherie.

Looking at the framed photographs grouped by country, one is almost led to form a perception, as happens in a picture gallery where it is not the painting but the sensation to cause tension, these highly evocative images are almost snapshots and contain the feelings that the people portrayed in them seem to feel in that moment, each with his or her own story.

«During a stop in Bombay – writes Paoli – a little girl bent down hurriedly to collect fresh cow dung. Precious fuel. Carried away in a pail, it was immediately cut, flattened in a pizza-like shape and put on a roof to dry in the sun. This little omelette will serve to feed the fire. Over the fire, in a blackened concave pan, everything is cooked. Then, hunched down in a circle, with their heels touching the ground, (an improbable position for us westerners) they take advantage of the little heat there is to warm themselves in the evening».
These are images that move those who can admire gallery paintings of immense realism that shake the viewer from the usual apathy that our western world has accustomed us to.

Through his lens, Paoli also discovers exquisite architecture, masterpieces of spontaneous art, like the orderly exposition of colourful thongs or street signs with unusual graphics.
With this exhibit, the Galleria di Porta Pepice run by Gaetano Plasmati once again shows that it is a special place not only for art and photography, but also as a place where the different cultures and experiences of the world can meet.
Cultures and experiences which are not very well-known and far from our daily routines.
A story that the photographer “investigates” discreetly, but in a way which is also full of precious travel notes that tell us of the customs, symbols and traditions he met.
Monkeys, snake charmers, elephants, temples, children, cows, markets and more: deserts, tents, camels, mice, seagulls.
More than subjects for his shots, they are also the characters in his book Fourtrips, which condenses the background and stories connected with these trips.

Review by Pietro Berra, Como "La Provincia" Monday, 8 December 2003

Five Cross-sections of Life in the Travel Diary of Maurizio Paoli

«Fourtrips», The World from Inside

A trip in search of answers. Or rather, five trips - to India, Marocco, Burma, Peru and Israel - that Maurizio Paoli, born in Parma in 1955, but whose home is in the Como area, has just collected in the volume «Fourtrips», published by Cesarenani.
What most strikes the reader is undoubtedly the colors: those images that the author evokes with words and a well-stocked photographic appendix. But behind the exoticism of the façade, someone has been at work digging deep into the human soul and into the enigmas of this world, which is getting smaller and smaller and more and more globalized. The last thing in the index, but

the first in order of importance is the eternal conflict between Arabs and Israelis, which Paoli very realistically shows us through the bitter point of view of a Jewish couple: "My friends from Moshav no longer believe in a peaceful solution. The have been moderate, very critical and never aggressive. But this is no longer true now - they believe in the violent system of Sharon, whom they had always rejected". There is a hint of sadness in his voice. It is easy to read it in the look in the eyes of someone who finally has a little house with blue windows and two splendid children to rear. "We were the ones who created this mess - Ilan confides in me

But what can we do now? The proportions of the conflict are already out of control and beyond all sense of reason. I want safety for my children. Sharon makes life hard for the Arabs and that's a game two can play».
Paoli becomes impassioned about the historical and social contexts of all the countries he crosses, even those which, unlike Israel, are much farther from western spotlights. And he always goes into greater depth from the point of view - partial but sincere - of the native populations: "An 86-year-old Burmese man, ex-major in the British army, told me about Ne Win the dictator general, about those who were killed in 1962 and the government program: the Burmese route through socialism. There are actually very few well-to-do Burmese.

They are all military personnel or supporters of the regime. There is a lot of corruption".
Swimming upstream like salmon, from the end to the beginning of the little volume, we arrive at India and eternal questions. "A Sadu is a man of prayer. He lives by begging and takes everything he has with him. For some people, they are saints. I met one in a village. Siddhartha came to mind. One of the books I have read again and again. "I think of Hermann Hesse again [...]. Of the famous dialogue with Govìnda. Where he announces that only those who stop searching find oneness. And only those who find it no longer search".