Landschaft (Landscape)
Betty Zanelli
2014
50 x 90 cm
Pigment print on Epson Canvas Satin – Ed. 1/5
A lonely footpath leads into bushes. A half-height nature stonewall frames the woods on the left side. Low shrubs on the right provide the view to a Ferris wheel. Despite the grey and cloudy sky, some of the bushes seem to be illuminated by the sun. The bend before the way vanishes in the woods is particularly bright. Especially at this point the lightning doesn’t seem to be natural, but artificial, unexplained, because the source is unclear. Likewise mysterious is the location: the path appears neatly in opposite to the wild shrubs; a hint to a far away civilization might be the distant big wheel; a red-white barrier tape at the end of the stone wall underlines the desolation of the place. Nevertheless the shining highlighted areas expel the bleakness in the picture.
“Landschaft” (landscape) is part of Betty’s Spreepark photo-series. Here she captured her impressions of the abandoned amusement park in Berlin. The illusionism of the former funfair in its best times seems to be reflected in the image by the surrealistic light. But the absence of human beings creates at the same time an overwhelming emptiness. Even though the traces of the previous activities are still visible, the place is absolutely deserted. For all the history of the depicted location, the image appears timeless, due to unidentifiable daytime and missing hints to the date of the shooting.
One might think of some of René Magritte’s paintings, especially the series of oil on canvas paintings “L’Empire des lumières” (The Empire of Lights) from 1953/54. Despite the opposite light arrangements they are showing a similar solitude and absence. Furthermore, there is the surrealistic lightning. The presentation of the photo, on a frame stretched canvas paper, camouflages the print. This is even more remarkable in comparison to Magritte’s painting style, which evokes partly photography by its naturalism.
Betty Zanelli
Born in Bologna, Italy, Betty lives and works currently as visual artist and professor for visual design in her hometown. After her studies as a painter at the Accademia di Belle Arti (Academy of Fine Arts) in Bologna, she moved at the end of the 1980s to New York, where she lived for eight years. Here she investigated in various media starting from painting through photography to installations. She often included found objects in her works.
In the first half of the 1990s Betty participated in the Project Studio Space Program, offered by the P.S. 122 Art Gallery. During this time she presented her works in several personal and group exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles. Returning to her home country she continued her artistic researches and placed her works regularly in artistic shows in and outside of Italy.
Starting in 2000, Betty approached digital photography and digital print, mostly on canvas, and focused on popular iconography and culture, with a special attention on childhood. Due to two artist residencies in 2014 and 2015 at the Berlin based Institut für Alles Mögliche she could deepen her research on inconsistent aspects in urban spaces. Her particular interest herein lies on abandoned spaces of entertainment like amusement parks.
In Berlin Betty found the Spreepark, the former DDR Kulturpark (the only permanent amusement park of the GDR). Deserted after several initiatives of revitalization, there are still some of the old structures, struggling against the decay and the re-conquest by the nature. Here she shoots The Spreepark series, from which our Artwork of the Month / April 2016 is taken.