Acqua Alta a Venezia | Patrizia Zelano

The series is structured as a four-step journey through the history of art, unfolding in a formal and symbolic metamorphosis, with references from the ancient to the contemporary, including the Matterist artist Alberto Burri.

The first three photos take us on a journey from antiquity to the Middle Ages, where books become relics. The first (#01) evokes a time of the tablets of the law, a compact and sculpted volume that becomes an archaeological find. In the second picture (#02), the book lies open, the left cover appears covered in rust, while the right page becomes a carmine-red chromatic field, scattered with fragments of fabric that evoke shreds of flesh and blood. The third photograph (#07) recalls illuminated manuscripts, with encrusted pages and words that appear embroidered.

The second section features an open book with water-like accordion pages and pink spots (#24). In the upper right, a winged genius from the Domitilla catacombs in Rome symbolises protection. This photo connects to the third section, which opens with a volume of the Treccani Enciclopedia Italiana from the early twentieth century (#30), whose sculptural pages become three-dimensional waves. In the sixth photograph (#32), the pages are like waves adorned with a tear, and the image is thus transformed into a visual elegy. In the seventh image (#33), the arrangement of books forms a permanent sculpture: the spines have vanished and the damp, curled pages create a series of wavy ridges, reminiscent of a stormy seascape. In the eighth photo (#34), structured like a vanitas – a type of still-life memento mori – three books soaked in water evoke long, floating fringes cut by the wind.

In the ninth photograph (#39), books are seen dried after the tide and stacked like a Flemish still life. Their colours range from ivory to honey, from grey to iron burnish.

Finally, the tenth photograph (#53) concludes this journey; it represents an unexpected landing in contemporary architecture, showcasing a sculptural image by Canaletto. This photograph captures the paradox of the lagoon with its unique beauty and the threat it faces.

For Zelano, saving books has become a gesture aimed at restoring the evocative power of knowledge. Each photograph is like a collective memento mori that urges us to reconsider our relationship with the Earth, with culture, and with fragility itself. The photographed volumes emerge as ephemeral sculptures, lit only by natural light. The symbolic subject is transformed into regeneration, reconstructing fragments of meaning amidst the chaos of the present.