A series of thirty-three black and white pictures carries the remembrances of the best atmospheres from the neorealist tradition. The layout constitutes a linear sequence that runs uninterruptedly from cover to cover, apart from the joint credits meeting halfway through the book. The work dates back from 1953-54 to 2017, portraying places and people caught amid their daily struggles. At the beginning of each section we find only two coloured pictures that were shot at two significant places for the artist. One is a mulberry tree located in front of a dear friend’s studio in Italy, often frequented by Gasparini in his youth and of more personal resonance. The other is a view of the Sacrario Militare Redipuglia, a monumental graveyard nearby Gorizia, hosting bodies of 100.000 Italian soldiers who died during the First World War.
Tone-setter of the work is a ringing bell from De Sica’s neorealist movie I bambini ci guardano (Kids can see us). In one scene, the protagonist steals a bicycle and runs away ringing its bell in an illogical attempt to attract people’s attention. Similarly, the pictures hope to attract the reader’s attention with their vivid truths.
Gasparini’s work creates a relation between two distant and different countries united by the same attachment. Places where the artist has lived, loved and shared the suffering of its people. It is an ode to the undeniable strength of human beings in a time of controversial happenings, of historical pain. An attentive recording of meaningful everyday scenes unfolding before his eyes.
Edited by Studio Faganel, the book follows the making of a personal exhibition. Printed in large format, it features an exposed spine, inner stitching and a thick set of different papers elevating the impact of every image included. Overall, Da Gorizia Alle Ande emanates a poignant look over a world far away in time and space, to which the viewer connects directly through the eyes of the many kids staring at Gasparini’s camera.