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Curator Statement – Marcelo Brodsky on Gian Paolo Minelli
As a Swiss man in Buenos Aires, Gian Paolo wanted to get close to the local scene through his work. No better way than looking at our own Lugano, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires that took its name from the Swiss town, called Villa Lugano. An area of mono-blocks where workers and middle class families live and fight to survive. Gian Paolo started his photo essay working near the locals. He is not only shooting there, but also participating in several non governmental projects, building up a craft centre, helping the people to get in touch with alternative projects. He got the support of the Swiss town for some of the local projects. His pictures are not only a great story of the place and its people, but also of the way in which migrants make a new place their own, in this case with the help of photography.
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I open my eyes after a few hours of sleep. A night with my friends, mate, rehearsing with the band, I perform while the band plays, I improvise. I jump out of bed, I get dressed and go out to buy something to eat. On my way to the supermarket, I can find almost anything I could think of among the stolen goods offered: appliances, clothes, a thousand cheap things, I fix the price. My day continues as I go back home with the food and the object I just bought, I try to install it or fix it, my friends help me, we eat and we rehearse a new song. It is a good day.
Every second in Piedra Buena confronts you with the choice between madness and reason. A mistake could be fatal. For example, if I am chasing a thief who just robbed a friend of mine, I catch him, I take his gun, which he would have used against me, and I must think quickly not to shoot him. I must use my fists. I do not want to spend my life in jail. The boys I grew up with, I can see them sitting on the street 48 hours in a row, smoking “pasta base”. Temptations are dark and strong. Drugs, violence and crime are and will always be three things that fall on Piedra Buena like rain. That is why I say that we should always carry the umbrella of our conscience. Long live Art!
I have spent all my life here, at the rhythm of Piedra Buena. This is my world, people know me and respect me as I walk on the street, the walls of the houses are cracking because of their age, like the faces of kids transformed by drugs and violence. I love my neighbourhood, I am proud of it, I will not leave this place, just as the other people do not want to leave, and if they have to, they move no further than 10 blocks away.
Laparkaenpatineta (death on a skateboard), Barrio Piedra Buena, 2006
Gian Paolo Minelli (1968) lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina / Geneva, Switzerland. Click weblink attitudes.ch/expos/06_03/minelli/minelli_gb.htm or browse our archives
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