NORAYR KASPER. STEEL-LIVES, STILL-LIFE EDIZ. ITALIANA, INGLESE E FRANCESE

Dimenticate Matisse, concentratevi su Delacroix. Ascoltare Norayr Kasper parlare delle sue foto e dei suoi viaggi nel passato d'acciaio dell'Armenia, è come entrare in una natura morta, ancor prima che essa si presenti davanti a noi. Kasper potrebbe vagare, con aria da sognatore, lasciandosi trasportare da un discorso sui fiori e sui conigli, sui teschi di rocce piantate: è quella la bellezza in declino e il senso perduto, vi lascerebbe intendere, indicando verso la morta materia della vita nei suoi ultimi istanti. [...] Per utilizzare una formula di Jorge Semprun, il corpo senza vita continua sicuramente a morire, e la familiarità ossessiva di queste immagini ci conduce verso una storia che certi tra noi non potranno mai avere, e altri non potranno più ricordare. In fin dei conti, siamo feriti almeno quanto l'acciaio, gli stabilimenti o i vuoti: rovine del progresso che si ossidano e cadono in mani ignote e indiscrete. [...] Che fare? Dobbiamo rifiutarci di competere con lo slogan.

Forget Matisse, concentrate on Delacroix. To listen to the photographer Norayr Kasper talk about his photographs, and his journeys into Armenia’s steel past, is to enter a still life before it has arrived. He will move, wistfully, get carried away with talk of flowers and rabbits, skulls of planted rocks; this is the fading beauty and the lost relevance, he implies, indicating the dead matter of life at its last moments. […] To use a phrase from Jorge Semprun, the corpse will go on dying certainly, and the haunting familiarity of these images will pull at a history some of us can never have, and which some of us can no longer recall. We are, ultimately, as wounded as the steel, the plants and the voids; the ruins of progress oxidising and falling into hands unknown and indiscreet. […] What is to be done? We must refuse to compete with the slogan.

Norayr Kasper is a Canadian visual artist of Armenian ancestry. Growing up in Venice and now living in Toronto, Kasper’s sensibilities stem from a diverse cultural background resulting in a rich multidisciplinary art formation. He studied photography and architecture in Venice (IUAV), graduated in film production and cinema, Montreal (Concordia University, 1990). His work includes art and documentary photography, art films, cinematography of over 30 television and feature films out of which he has shaped a distinct visual signature. His first feature Calendar (in collaboration with director Atom Egoyan), a dialectic between photography and memory, won international recognitions among scholars and critics alike. Over the years he has received many cinematography awards and nominations. Kasper’s expressionistic style emphasizes a rich visual experience where textural elements, lighting, and movement heighten the expressiveness of his varied, cross-disciplinary works.

This book has been published on the occasion of the exhibition “Steel-Lives, Still-Life” by Norayr Kasper
Venice, Centro Studi e Documentazione della Cultura Armena
Loggia del Temanza
2 June – 24 November 2013