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Biography
Olivo Barbieri (Carpi, Italy, 1954)
Born in Carpi in 1954, Barbieri attended the faculty of pedagogy and the DAMS in Bologna.
During this time, his interest in photography was sparked, leading him to delve into research on artificial lighting in urban and architectural centres.
In 1978, he began to exhibit his work both in Italy and abroad.
During this period, he took part in many projects promoted by Luigi Ghirri, including “Viaggio in Italia”, an artwork consisting of a book and a travelling exhibition collecting images by many Italian and foreign authors.
From 1989 he began to travel regularly to the Far East, especially to China – a great source of inspiration for his shooting.
He became renowned for his innovative technique of creating miniaturised real landscapes, achieved by simulating a shallow depth of field with tilt-shift lenses. A distinctive feature of his works is the deliberate blurring at the edges of the photograph, known as "selective focus”. This technique transforms the image of a real city into a plastic-like model.
The artist exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1993, 1995 and 1997.
In 1996, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany, dedicated to him a major retrospective followed by a significant exhibition at MAXXI in 2015. The latter included the “Site Specific” project, undertaken by the artist in 2003 and featuring photographic and video material capturing different cities such as Rome, Turin, Montreal, Amman, Las Vegas, Shanghai, Seville, and New York.
The artist today lives and works in Milan.
Copyright the artist. Photo Olivo Barbieri
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Works
