Stefano Nicolini
2009
False Finishing Line
[Swimming Pools (Piscine)]

Colour slide 35 mm, printed on Hahnemuehle Baryta paper
70 x 70 cm
 
Provided by the artist - Stefano Nicolini
This square format photograph can be considered an advanced Photo-Drawing, both for its stylistic and its conceptual imprint. The brushstroke sketching the movements of the water increase in vigour compared to those in La Gara [The Competition], catalyzing all attention before discovering the athlete's arm. Even the latter shows new vigour when comparing it to those of the humanoids stripped of their muscles in the Automi [Automatons] series. This is the arm of a human being portrayed while measuring himself against the real challenge: the crossing of his own loneliness.
 
The photograph is divided into two almost triangular halves. In the lower one, excepting a short segment in the upper left corner above the swimmer, the yellow lines of the lanes disappear under the sketches of the splashes of the water which look like waves. This gives a more epic quality to the value of the swimmer's crossing, and at the same time a higher sense of freedom to his gesture. Instead, in the upper triangle the floats of the lanes are markedly visible. They symbolize the constraints which are awaiting for man and that will try to funnel him again towards a monotonous and therefore irrational existence. For rationality, intended as sound and indispensable reasonableness, can originate only from freedom.
 
Therefore, freedom is the condition of our existence and not its final purpose. Owing to the risks ahead, the inviting turquoise line which draws the two triangular halves of the photo and which the swimmer is getting ready to cross, represents a false finishing line. Which is precisely the title of the photograph.
 
Just as in Vittoria o Sconfitta [A Victory or a Defeat], even in this case the square format of the photo wants to represent a ring in which this time, however, the challenger is all by himself.
 
Stefano Nicolini (July 2010)
 
LL/37550