Gelo I and II, Montagna and Incantamento, first publications of a series of small books by Sergio Lovati. Published by Deserter’s books. With Sergio Lovati

“To imagine the story as a blooming flower or a series of blossoming.”

“This book was written in offering to the book just out of reach – radiant, waiting.”

(Carole Maso, Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, & Moments of Desire)

“Gelo I and II, Montagna and Incantamento are the first of a cycle of short books that arise from each other, independent but interconnected, and which take inspiration from the two contrasting places that define my life.” – Sergio Lovati

Gelo is a return to the hometown. A journey through a labyrinth of walls and ruins, blocked passages and depths, closed horizons and veils. The title is an homage to Thomas Bernhard’s literary debut of the same name.

Montagna is shot through with unresolved tension. Everything emerges to sink and re-emerge again in a continuous cycle of generation and transformation. In the final part a brief sequence of horizontal planes, backdrops that recede into the depths, hint at a different sense of eternity, where nothing has ever changed, and are a prelude to Incantamento.

Gelo II arises from the structure and on the structure of Gelo, and accommodates images of Montagna.
Interior mingles with exterior, exit with entrance, image with word, certainty with doubt, looking with being looked at.

Incantamento is crossing boundaries. Crossing. Images are named by assonance, seeking a common, overall movement, a melody. Incantamento is listening. It is bringing forth.

“How strange the idea that withdrawing, staying or going outside is a good way to find oneself and, finally, to know oneself. In life, the most important thing is to know oneself, it is said. As if the other were apart, and an addition or a projection. It would be much less strange to encounter it, look at it, listen to it, with the body still and without condescension. Looking outside, not expecting a reflection, but the possibility of a conversation. With the ruin, the branches, the wall, the leaf and the stone. With the face and the body, the hole, the door, the crack and the weeds.

These stories always start with a man who hasn’t slept well, dresses slowly, in plain colors, without extravagance, and goes outside. He carries a camera. What exactly does he do? Is he looking for something or does something appear to him? In his action, shooting doesn’t seem to make sense. In any case, he pays tribute and asks for silence. In each image, a door, a hole and a doubt.

Explaining an image is, again, a strange idea. It is daring to interrupt what should speak for itself, it is being unfair. Sergio Lovati’s work requires attention, it forces you to remain silent. Before your eyes, first darkness and then, everything. If you wait and squint, you might feel that you have a gift in front of you. Something impossible, an answer.” – Paula Vilaur Montoya