More than seventy large-format photographs from around thirty countries (which Mario Testino visited in the last seven years): this is how it takes shape A Beautiful World. A world that Testino captured and analyzed by taking his subjects out of their environment and inviting them into his portable studio where their belonging to a community becomes evident through the clothes they wear, those of their own history. Testino’s project, a world premiere, is on display in Rome until August 25.
In A Beautiful Worldwe find the synthesis of a seven-year project, for which Testino has explored other genres than fashion and portrait photography, genres in which he is undoubtedly a major player, to focus on an extraordinary variety of traditional but innovative clothing and costumes, worn with pride by people who preserve and transmit their traditions, because traditional costume is an essential symbol that highlights the most intimate characteristics of a people. On the stage of Testino’s world, therefore, it is not the novelty that is exposed, but what we have forgotten: what we were.
“During my travels, I realized that when a country loses the connection between its history and its traditional clothing, something truly precious is lost,” says Testino, who focuses on a decontextualized dress to reinforce the focus on this “second skin” that envelops us all, starting with her subjects.
The exhibition, which takes place along a thematic itinerary, is therefore a journey from Peru to Colombia, Japan, Myanmar, Mongolia, Kenya and other countries to reveal, through the reading and analysis of traditional customs, the attitudes of different peoples, sometimes revealing their similarities and in other cases their contrasts.
Like the photographers/travellers of yesteryear, Testino, thanks to his portable studio, has indeed succeeded in highlighting his subjects, and how for the Maasai Men or the Three Women of the Thari (Pakistan), traditional clothing reveals an almost unconscious attachment to the signs of their origins.
Indeed, Testino was inspired by the portraits of Peruvian women in traditional dress taken by Peruvian photographer Martin Chambi Jimenez in the early 20th century. However, Testino revisits the subject to document the richness and evolution of Peru’s costume traditions. The project continued with the idea of capturing the extraordinary richness of a constantly evolving clothing culture alongside an emerging trend of conformity that erases identities.
Testino responds to this conformism by searching, wherever he goes, for original and unchanging clothes and costumes that describe a role, an identity of belonging, underlined by visual clues: a hairstyle, the particular cut of a costume/dress, associated with a ritual, a celebration, a place or a custom.
Meticulously planned, his photographs have a nonchalance and elegance that have redefined informality in fashion imagery. Testino has applied the same attitude to his personal exploration of the cultural identities of the countries in which he has photographed the new collections. From this he has drawn an interpretation of the symbols and what unites and differentiates cultures, highlighting the complexities and contrasts of our multiple ways of belonging.
And this was achieved, as Testino explains, by “transferring the emotion of a close and intimate encounter with the subject into the photograph I was taking, because the eyes of the modern world, obsessed with getting as close as possible to their hero, wanted to feel that they were literally able to reach out and touch the present moment in the images.”
The exhibition, curated by Patrick Kinmonth, is housed in the Palazzo Bonaparte, an architectural gem that once belonged to Napoleon’s family.
Under the patronage of the Municipality of Rome, Mario Testino. A Beautiful World is produced and organized by Arthemisia in collaboration with Domus Artium Reserve. A Beautiful World supports The Great Balance’s mission by promoting understanding of cultural heritage.
Paola Sammartano
Mario Testino. A Beatiful World
May 25 to August 25, 2024
Palazzo Bonaparte
Venice Square 5
00187 Rome
Italy
https://www.mostrepalazzobonaparte.it/
