The photographer Dino Ignari shows the faces of contemporary poetry in Rome
Immortalize a poet at rest, without faking his eyes or presumption of stature, without the pose in the image of the one who published and rejoices. It is the goal of Dino Ignani, who for almost half a century has been portraying those who deal with poetry, trying to capture them in his rooms where the armor of everyday life is paraded and placed next to the front door. Just before the World Poetry Day, the photographer opened in Rome as a guest of the Casa dell’architettura “Intimate portraits”, a personal exhibition that takes the title of the most famous section of his virtual portfolio: there are about 350 faces collected over years, but only about twenty loved ones were framed and posted. The rest flows incessantly onto the two maxi-screens positioned at the entrance, as if time had not decided whether or not to initiate you into the history of literature.
The fee froze
The process of portraying an intellectual in his home was previously implemented by Renato Minore in The Promise of the Night (Donzelli, 2011), leaving the user free to sculpt an image out of the story’s raw ink. Otherwise, inside the Roman Aquarium, the rigor of Giorgio Bassani is imposed on everyone, to name just one, so uncomfortable for his villagers; likewise, the insufficient spontaneity of Valentino’s characters and his precarious homeland, which is defended to the utmost, can be seen from afar.
If Biancamaria Frabotta lacks crystal clear and profound vision, Patrizia Cavalli lacks awkward timing, symptom of peerless wit. Not to be overlooked is the teaching of Elio Pagliarani, who recently completed the function dedicated to him: with “The Girl Carla” (1978), the poet dampens the ego dominance that invades much of the expression of consumer society through a merciless third person balancing verbal Koinè and an aseptic suspension of judgment.
Furthermore, a few months after his death, Ignani could not help but appreciate the docile serenity of Giampiero Neri: “Memory makes a backward journey / where an uncertain matter / returns with many fragments”, to use his notion of cyclicality.
The ambitions of the present
Following his gaze in the crowd, he traces the ideal perimeter of a poet’s fortress with diatribes between the living rooms and back rooms of the academies. “And so the poets, although reunited in a guild, fade away separately, evaporate, like men of smoke … in the end one wonders: who are the old men, the women, the boys in these photos?” It’s anything but rhetorical question with which Enzo Siciliano concluded in 1984 the text that introduced Ignani’s Set Shots in “Nuovi Argomenti” and that today opens the exhibition.
