Acrobats 2020-2025

The project draws inspiration from the photographic archive of a pair of Italian acrobats active in the 1930s, whose images depict not only balancing acts, but also the delicate equilibrium of the relationship between the two protagonists.

Starting from this material, Paolo Ventura creates a series of images suspended between painting and photography, in which the acrobats appear isolated in a metaphysical and unreal city, a recurring theme in his visual research. The circus acts are thus transformed into a metaphor for the body, memory, and the fragility of bonds.

Text by Paolo Ventura:

A few years ago, at a flea market, I found an outstanding archive of an anonymous Italian acrobatic couple who performed in European theatres in the 1930s. The photo album struck me with the images of their balancing acts: it is often she who holds her partner aloft. To me, it was the perfect metaphor for love: a steady, yet delicate, equilibrium. 

As the album progresses, the latter images, taken in the 1960s, depict the elderly couple still performing their balancing acts. In contrast, the album’s final photograph from the early Seventies captures only the woman, now alone, suspended head down and balanced on one arm.  

For this project, inspired by the couple, I have isolated their figures and set them in a metaphysical, imaginary, self-constructed city.  

This is a long-lasting love story. 

Artist’s biography:

Paolo Ventura is one of the most innovative photographers in the Italian scene. His works are exhibited in art galleries and museums worldwide, and, more recently, his interest has shifted toward painting. He is also an accomplished author, with publications such as War Souvenir (2006), Winter Stories (2009), L’Automa (The Automaton, 2011), Short Stories (2016), Quarantine Diary (2020), Paolo Ventura (the monograph), Photographs and Drawings (2020), Autobiografia di un Impostore (An Imposter’s Autobiography, 2021), Milano Proiezioni Astratte (Milano abstract projections, 2024), as well as several children’s books. Ventura’s works are part of distinguished collections, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Phillips Collection in Washington, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and the MART – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto.  

In collaboration with: Città di Torino – Dipartimento Gabinetto del Sindaco, Ufficio Look of The City.