honorable mention
Davide Perbellini italy
title
Wegkreuz
Anna Zinelli
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entry description
In "Wegkreuz", Davide Perbellini addresses the theme of popular devotion, dwelling on the phenomenon of the so-called "field crosses”, or those aedicules with crucifixes that are often encountered in the mountainous areas of South Tyrol (Italy) and its surroundings. Sometimes they are used for funerary and epigraphic purposes, sometimes for apotropaic purposes, and sometimes as simple "signposts" (as emerges in particular from their German name "Wegkreuz", literally "way cross"). They are part of the phenomenon that anthropologist Emanuela Ranzetti has defined as the "grammar of salvation": a form of widespread popular worship, rooted in the Alpine territory, linked to an ideal of religiosity experienced in a spontaneous, accessible, collective way. The narrative is entrusted to the repetition of the same iconography, reminiscent of the seriality dear to the Düsseldorf school, in shots in which the human figure is absent but continually evoked by various details, such as the presence of fresh flowers or, in one of the shots, the detail of the ladder left by someone leaning against the fence to reach the cross more easily. Specialising in architectural photography, Davide Perbellini has for several years been devoting his attention to the different ways in which the sacred is represented: with "Wegkreuz" he continues this investigation, looking at the ways in which an ideal, the one linked to a form of worship, has been inscribed in the history of the territory.Anna Zinelli
about the photographer
Born in Merano in 1990. From an early age he began to pursue his father’s passion by photographing with his camera. Between 2010 and 2012, he moved to Milan where, in addition to attending a photography course, he worked as an assistant photographer for some local studios. Back in South Tyrol, and after a brief interlude as a news photographer for a local newspaper, he worked as a stills photographer for several Italian and German film productions. From 2014 he has been dedicating himself exclusively to architectural photography. A pupil of Marco Introini, he focuses his photographic research on the understanding and analysis of the natural and urban territories, always trying to build a relationship between architecture and the surroundings. He currently lives in Merano and works mainly in the north of Italy, collaborating with architecture studios, designers and trade magazines.back to gallery