Cloro, Condominium, published by Grani edizioni, with cloro and Valentino Barachini

The book presentation anticipates the opening of the exhibition Cloro – Condominium

INTERZONE, Saturday 2 December, 6 pm

Cloro’s book with Grani edizioni has as its matrix an obvious reference to Ballard’s book Condominium, from which the title is quoted. The condominium is described as a container, compact, univocal, like a skin, even functional, at least apparently, an organism that contains, however, a heterogeneous, disjointed whole, lacking in concatenated relations of cause and effect, even, at times, dramatic.

“In contrast to J. G. Balard’s novel High-Rise (Condominium), from which I was arbitrarily and laterally inspired, here the full-fledged skyscrapers are replaced by squat, yellowing apartment blocks. The human dynamics bring us back to an inescapable perception of apathy and atavistic nihilism, well hidden behind a technology that has found in dopamine the goose that lays the golden egg. There is no revolt here, or rather, there seems to be no reason for it. Living cohesively in the same structure means making compromises and consciously accepting the long-term damage. The photographs are mostly taken indoors using analogue and digital cameras. When negatives are not printed in the darkroom, they are rephotographed on the window glass, photocopied, rephotographed, and so on. ” Cloro

The book’s hardcover binding represents the container-condominium, which wraps and contains a set of heterogeneous elements that coexist, represented by the use of different papers and formats, with different textures, colours and weights. The texts are cut-ups, written on a Remington typewriter. The deluxe editions contain a photo printed on 20×30 cm aluminium and on a slim card the video Volubilis with music by Gianluca Ceccarini conceived and produced by Cloro for Insect Panic.