“...Paola Di Bello is interested in exploring the sphere of perception: what we see and how we see it or, more often, what we can’t see simply because we miss it or stop looking at it, while fitting into existence. We tend to be absent-minded and pay little attention to the most familiar among facts and objects. Still, so many surprises, issues and contradictions are therein enclosed. Inquisitive and receptive, Paola Di Bello knows that it is always worth experimenting multiple views and does it daily, in a concrete and fundamental way, directly and artlessly, so as to unmask any pre-established visions and go deep into the knowledge of the world we live in. The Rear Window project consists of a series of pictures portraying urban landscapes, which Paola Di Bello has taken from windows of private apartments in various cities, from New York to Turin Mirafiori, to Le Havre and Baghdad. Yet, the superimposition of day and night shots belies the documentary logic of these pictures. In the day traffic, under night lights, every glimpse gets amazingly magical. The artist sides with the everyday views of those who live there. The city finally turns into sensible reality, filled with everyday glances and experiences, and gets rid of that neutral postcard beauty that tends to denote conventional and privileged views. Still, it proves to be pervasively extraordinary. In addition to some pictures belonging to the Rear Window project, a projection is shown in the gallery which forces indoors the vision of the outdoor crossroads. The shift takes place on both time and space levels, and the gallery turns into a stage for what you can only see when looking out of the gallery windows. In the film, daylight slowly changes into darkness, almost simultaneously, creating a “day-night effect”. Paola Di Bello’s work explores the boundaries of what is public and private and pursues a strategical repossession of collective spaces; without quitting poetical inspiration, it gets down to substantial vision and its objects, while investigating the possibility of knowledge. Her work then takes the form of a series of postcards, which will go around the world and carry the most personal of all possible views, the one framed by our home window. The highly private is now in the public eye. Unlike what was originally suggested by the projection, Rear Window acquires a new meaning: that of an invitation to turn to extroversion and relation...''

 

Each and every body’s space by Gabi Scardi