Basilico, Gabriele
Gabriele Basilico (Milan, 1944 – 2013) is internationally known for his research into landscape and architecture. An architect by training, Basilico abandoned the practice of architecture as it is traditionally understood, in order to undertake a different way of reading and interpreting the idiom: “I think that the urban space, subjected to an accelerated transformation without precedent, presents itself a true metaphor for society, a treasure chest of clues to contemporary life which has without doubt merited being observed with great attention over the last few decades.”
Photography therefore became for Basilico an instrument for decoding space, for clarifying its constitutional elements with a lucid vision that seems to mirror the same clarity of thought. A philosophy that guides the vision, always passing, however, through direct experience of the places, attentive to what they communicate and reveal in their complexity.
The works for MAXXI (atlante italiano003, Sguardi contemporanei and Cantiere d’autore), reinforce this position: whether is the setting of the building site, the Strait of Messina or the Zanussi offices at Orcia, Basilico’s photographs present the same clear and “participatory” vision of the places.
