Stefano Nicolini
2009
To Win Clawing a Dream
[Swimming Pools (Piscine)]

Colour slide 35 mm, printed on Hahnemuehle Baryta paper
86 x 75 cm
 
Provided by the artist - Stefano Nicolini
This photograph, just like the others in Piscine [Swimming pools], was taken with an analog photo camera and there is no digital manipulation whatsoever. Therefore, Vincere artigliando un sogno [To Win Clawing a Dream] is one of those images which I prefer to call "Photo-Drawings" owing to the overall sketching, or as in this case, for the irreverent and ironic sketching of some of the elements. This can be seen in the fourth lane from the bottom where a hand is stretching out like a claw. It looks as if the "clawed" swimmer is trying to escape from an icy coldness conveyed by the humanoid one in the second lane from the bottom. The first swimmer is trying to find refuge in a more welcoming oneiric dimension, which personally I consider an unavoidable experience. Also the swimmer in the first lane from the bottom seems to be rebelling to the irrational spirit of the challenge. He does it mockingly transforming the upper part of his back and arm into the tail of a whale. The figures with the "arm-claw" and the "stroke-tail" end up dominating the scene, transforming the agonistic liquid whirl of the competition into an irreverent carefree glimmer of splashes, thus showing us that sometimes in order to win all you really need to do is cling on to a dream.
 
The flecks of turquoise water and the dark blue of the two lanes in the upper part of the photograph enhance the joyfulness of the image, and at the same time weaken the rigid graphic structure which characterizes the photographs in the Automi [Automatons] series.
 
Stefano Nicolini (July 2010)
 
LL/37563