Stories Stefan Giftthaler and the involuntary Dadaism of the world Text by Alessandro Ronchi Photo by Stefan Giftthaler Add to bookmarks photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler Leafing through Stefan Giftthaler’s portfolio, an inevitable first thought springs to mind - the great photographer Luigi Ghirri, from Emilia-Romagna photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler Giftthaler started out working on fashion shoots, before feeling the need to engage on his own account with places, landscapes and architecture. His spaces share common formal and thematic characteristics with those favoured by Luigi Ghirri. photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler It could be a central symmetry that would have been perfect were it not for a single discordant element that triggers a subtle, almost unconscious unease; it could be the juxtaposition of phenomenal realities and artificial images that make up a third reality-plane that signifies the civilisation of the image. Undoubtedly it’s the humorous approach, the anticipation of the inevitable absurdity generated in the places of consumption and entertainment of mass society, for instance when a group of tourists stops bang in the middle of the jaws of an enormous papier-mâché crocodile or an astronaut “lands” in the cathedral square in Milan. It is the unconscious Dadaism that the world, as it is now, generates simply by existing. photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler photo courtesy Stefan Giftthaler 19 March 2022 Share
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