My Beautiful DISCO
2006/ 2009: My beautiful Disco
A project by Luca Saini curated by Olga Gambari.
Produced by Giampaolo Abbondio - GALLERIA PACK
Everything was born from a simple idea, and precisely because of this it was effective. From 2006 until today, the photographer and artist from Turin Luca Saini has realized 777 portraits, each one depicting a person with his or her favourite record. A vinyl record of course: microgroove 78’s, 45’s or 33 rpm; “a round disk with a spiral groove for the reproduction of sounds”. An object which is in no way becoming extinct, on the contrary, it is living a small yet constant revival. According to recent statistics sales have almost doubled in the past six months; successful musicians have gone back to using this format (including Jovanotti and Vinicio Capossela as just two examples in Italy); this format is an ever-increasing status for connoisseurs and true music lovers.
One person, one record and one single magenta-red backdrop are the main characters of this project. A strongly desired series that became a little less rigorous in the ways with which the photographer and the photographed subject - confronting one another even for a long time before the shooting - have discovered as a way of personalizing the session: an object, a garment, a position, an expression.
What comes out of this Today is a journey – which started with the American underground punk of Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü, and ended with the classic record Rimmel by Francesco De Gregori. The project was born through the simple word-of-mouth between friends at the studio of Saini in the area of Balon, the multiethnic heart of Turin. It then became, as it went along, an itinerant work in progress with exhibitions and sessions that were open to the public (in every sense: it was possible to see a selection of the portraits which were already produced, to watch the artist at work and more than anything to be photographed with one’s own favourite record). The project was carried out also in Milan, Genoa, Palermo, Cagliari, Bologna and Rome.
A long journey during which numerous alternative journeys interweaved, journeys that each one of us could combine to his or her own pleasure: the history of music, the history of design connected to it, the chronicle of the various youth cultures that were born or have arrived in Italy during the past few decades and their human types, the predictable and the surprising choices, well-known faces (Arturo Brachetti, Trio Medusa, Eva Robin’s, members of successful bands such as Subsonica, Linea 77, Nina Zilli Afterhours, Marlene Kuntz, Velvet…) and unknown faces, all placed one next to the other without any distinction, connected only by their private emotion for music.
This is the most important celebration that has come to light though MY BEAUTIFUL DISCO: the celebration of the passion of each one of us, whether this is explicit or hidden somewhere in our history. The act of love towards the relationship that binds a person to an object and its contents: the sounds, the words, the images. In other words a tribute to the music that changes lives. Possibly for the better, and with the bonus of a nice record cover.
My Beautiful DISCO Shooting in Italy:
TORINO: Photography And Other Lies STUDIO
GENOVA: Galleria Viola Box
MILANO: Galleria Pack
ROMA: FotoGrafia Festival Internazionale di Roma ROMA: Shooting On Air - Radio Deejay
CAGLIARI: Marina Cafè Noir Festival
BOLOGNA: Disco D'Oro
PALERMO: Album - Museo Civico di Castelbuono
June 2009: MBD RECORD STORE – Luca Saini
16th of June-12th of July 2009
Spazio Azimut, Turin, Italy
“MBD Record Store” is the title of the installation that has brought – or better, brought back – 777 portraits around Italy, as if it was a tour of a rock band. An experience which Saini knows very well, having travelled along Italian and European motorways during the 90’s as the singer of Frammenti, one of the best kept secrets of Italian independent rock.
A classical record store was faithfully reproduced – like one of those that still survive in our cities and that make capitals such as London, Berlin, New York, San Francisco unique.
The 777 portraits of MY BEAUTIFUL DISCO have the shape of record covers, and were exhibited as such in eight typical wooden shelves at the centre of the shop. Others instead were hanging on the walls, which was covered with album covers, photographs, objects and other imaginary shelves.
Each “record” (disco) is a copy dedicated to one sole love story between a person and his or her favourite vinyl record, with a cover that is different from all the others. The records were handled, looked at and commented by the “clients” exactly as it happens with real records in real shops, in an unmistakable atmosphere, which is similar to the one immortalized by some books and films such as in Nick Hornby’s High fidelity.
Bookshop - Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Monday 6th July – Saturday 11th July 2009
After the success of the My Beautiful Disco - Record Store private view of the past 16th of June 2009 at Spazio Azimut in Turin, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (via Modane 16, Turin) welcomed the second special event of the project designed by the artist and photographer from Turin Luca Saini.
From Monday the 6th to Saturday the 11th of July 2009, during the 5th edition of the TRAFFIC Free Festival, Luca Saini exhibited at the Bookshop area of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, a themed selection of the photographic work of My Beautiful Disco, all sized 100x100cm.
The private-view happening was in fact the first big event of the Traffic Free Festival, and concluded a day that was dedicated to contemporary art with work that unites photography, music, story telling and performance.
Bookshop - Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Monday 6th July – Saturday 11th July 2009
A project by Luca Saini curated by Olga Gambari.
Produced by Giampaolo Abbondio - GALLERIA PACK
Everything was born from a simple idea, and precisely because of this it was effective. From 2006 until today, the photographer and artist from Turin Luca Saini has realized 777 portraits, each one depicting a person with his or her favourite record. A vinyl record of course: microgroove 78’s, 45’s or 33 rpm; “a round disk with a spiral groove for the reproduction of sounds”. An object which is in no way becoming extinct, on the contrary, it is living a small yet constant revival. According to recent statistics sales have almost doubled in the past six months; successful musicians have gone back to using this format (including Jovanotti and Vinicio Capossela as just two examples in Italy); this format is an ever-increasing status for connoisseurs and true music lovers.
One person, one record and one single magenta-red backdrop are the main characters of this project. A strongly desired series that became a little less rigorous in the ways with which the photographer and the photographed subject - confronting one another even for a long time before the shooting - have discovered as a way of personalizing the session: an object, a garment, a position, an expression.
What comes out of this Today is a journey – which started with the American underground punk of Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü, and ended with the classic record Rimmel by Francesco De Gregori. The project was born through the simple word-of-mouth between friends at the studio of Saini in the area of Balon, the multiethnic heart of Turin. It then became, as it went along, an itinerant work in progress with exhibitions and sessions that were open to the public (in every sense: it was possible to see a selection of the portraits which were already produced, to watch the artist at work and more than anything to be photographed with one’s own favourite record). The project was carried out also in Milan, Genoa, Palermo, Cagliari, Bologna and Rome.
A long journey during which numerous alternative journeys interweaved, journeys that each one of us could combine to his or her own pleasure: the history of music, the history of design connected to it, the chronicle of the various youth cultures that were born or have arrived in Italy during the past few decades and their human types, the predictable and the surprising choices, well-known faces (Arturo Brachetti, Trio Medusa, Eva Robin’s, members of successful bands such as Subsonica, Linea 77, Nina Zilli Afterhours, Marlene Kuntz, Velvet…) and unknown faces, all placed one next to the other without any distinction, connected only by their private emotion for music.
This is the most important celebration that has come to light though MY BEAUTIFUL DISCO: the celebration of the passion of each one of us, whether this is explicit or hidden somewhere in our history. The act of love towards the relationship that binds a person to an object and its contents: the sounds, the words, the images. In other words a tribute to the music that changes lives. Possibly for the better, and with the bonus of a nice record cover.
MY BEAUTIFUL DISCO - Shooting in Italy - LUCA SAINI from luca saini on Vimeo.
My Beautiful DISCO Shooting in Italy:
TORINO: Photography And Other Lies STUDIO
GENOVA: Galleria Viola Box
MILANO: Galleria Pack
ROMA: FotoGrafia Festival Internazionale di Roma ROMA: Shooting On Air - Radio Deejay
CAGLIARI: Marina Cafè Noir Festival
BOLOGNA: Disco D'Oro
PALERMO: Album - Museo Civico di Castelbuono
June 2009: MBD RECORD STORE – Luca Saini
16th of June-12th of July 2009
Spazio Azimut, Turin, Italy
“MBD Record Store” is the title of the installation that has brought – or better, brought back – 777 portraits around Italy, as if it was a tour of a rock band. An experience which Saini knows very well, having travelled along Italian and European motorways during the 90’s as the singer of Frammenti, one of the best kept secrets of Italian independent rock.
A classical record store was faithfully reproduced – like one of those that still survive in our cities and that make capitals such as London, Berlin, New York, San Francisco unique.
The 777 portraits of MY BEAUTIFUL DISCO have the shape of record covers, and were exhibited as such in eight typical wooden shelves at the centre of the shop. Others instead were hanging on the walls, which was covered with album covers, photographs, objects and other imaginary shelves.
Each “record” (disco) is a copy dedicated to one sole love story between a person and his or her favourite vinyl record, with a cover that is different from all the others. The records were handled, looked at and commented by the “clients” exactly as it happens with real records in real shops, in an unmistakable atmosphere, which is similar to the one immortalized by some books and films such as in Nick Hornby’s High fidelity.
Bookshop - Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Monday 6th July – Saturday 11th July 2009
After the success of the My Beautiful Disco - Record Store private view of the past 16th of June 2009 at Spazio Azimut in Turin, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (via Modane 16, Turin) welcomed the second special event of the project designed by the artist and photographer from Turin Luca Saini.
From Monday the 6th to Saturday the 11th of July 2009, during the 5th edition of the TRAFFIC Free Festival, Luca Saini exhibited at the Bookshop area of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, a themed selection of the photographic work of My Beautiful Disco, all sized 100x100cm.
The private-view happening was in fact the first big event of the Traffic Free Festival, and concluded a day that was dedicated to contemporary art with work that unites photography, music, story telling and performance.
Bookshop - Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, ItalyMonday 6th July – Saturday 11th July 2009
