2019-2020

A series of black and white photo-portraits of Mecha toys, captured in the foregroung like real people posing for a picture. A serial and minimalistic approach, inspired by Japanese visual culture, aimed at removing all elements of distraction by reducing the subjects to a pure iconic and vital synthesis through a conceptual reworking of the traditional posed portrait. This gives us the opportunity to take a trip back into the archaeo-history of the epic Mecha.
The Mecha as if they were discovered through an archaeological digging, like other reported ancient civilizations. The adopted photographic approach, operating onsubtraction, allows both the plastic dimension as well as the material quality of the subjects, with all the imperfections, cracks, and dust that characterize their lives through the sharpeness of the black and white.

Mecha Collection > Matteo Berti  –  Japanese Lettering > Inoue Naoka

 

EXHIBITION

2021 – Manga Heroes. From Osamu Tezuka to Pokémon – Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano

2022 – Manga Heroes. Heoroes and Miths on the Volcano slopes – MANN – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

 

PUBLICATION

2022 – Corriere dell’italianità di Jacopo C. Buranelli

Limited Edition Prints available on > King Koala Press on-line Store