Stefano Cerio: Chinese Fun

In 2013 Stefano Cerio travelled to Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao and Hong Kong to photograph amusement parks, water parks and sports grounds. He arrived out of season, when the rides stood idle and no visitors were present. Chinese Fun, published by Hatje Cantz in April 2015, brings together fifty-four photographs made on those visits.

The method is consistent and deliberate. Cerio works with a plate camera and places his subjects at the centre of the frame, so that the structures he finds — a concrete fruit basket the size of a house, the looped track of an enormous roller coaster closing off the courtyard of an office complex — hold the middle of the picture, separated from the crowd that would ordinarily animate them. What the publisher calls the ruptures, bleakness and senselessness behind the cheerful façade becomes a question of form as much as of subject: scale without an audience, decoration without a use.

Realised in China in 2013, the series extends a longer enquiry in which Cerio has photographed ski arenas, cruise ships, water parks and, in Italy, street altars — the colourful illusionary worlds people build in order to escape the everyday. His interest lies in the “other” place as a focus for present desires, and in what such stages hold once the promised pleasure has momentarily withdrawn. The amusement park, built entirely for collective happiness, is his most exposed example.

The book runs to 128 pages at 250 × 310 mm, with texts by Walter Guadagnini and Nadine Barth and design by Julia Wagner of grafikanstalt, and it carries German, English and Italian texts; an exhibition at Fondazione VOLUME! in Rome followed from 23 September to 3 November 2015. For a collection, the interest lies in a single, closely argued body of work fixed in book form at the moment of its making, and in a trilingual edition that carries the series beyond the Chinese sites where it was photographed.

Stefano Cerio's particular focus is on alternative worlds: For his multifaceted series, he photographs leisure paradises – ski resorts, cruise ship giants, water parks, and fun parks. Even Italian street altars are, for him, part of these colorful illusionary worlds that humans construct to escape everyday life. However, Cerio (born 1962) unmasks in his stark images, which portray rides and water parks exclusively out of season and therefore without visitors, the ruptures, the bleakness, and the senselessness that emerge behind the cheerful facades. For Chinese Fun, the photographer visited a whole series of amusement parks, water parks, and sports fields in Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, and Hong Kong. His centrally arranged compositions are created with a large-format camera and document exquisitely absurd arrangements, from a house-sized concrete fruit basket to the winding tracks of a giant roller coaster in the courtyard of an office complex. Exhibition: Fondazione VOLUME!, Rome 23.9.–3.11.2015

Designed by: Julia Wagner, grafikanstalt
Texts by: Walter Guadagnini, Nadine Barth
German, English, Italian
April 2015, 128 Pages , 54 Photos
54 ills.
250mm x 310mm
ISBN:978-3-7757-3969-6

Publisher page editorial text:
| Deceptive images of fun and laughter, projections of happiness: Chinese amusement parks
Stefano Cerio (*1962) directs his attention to alternative worlds: for his elaborate series he takes pictures of recreational paradises—ski arenas, cruises, water and fun parks. For the artist, Italian street altars even count among these colorful illusory worlds that people create for the purpose of escaping from everyday life. Yet in his cool photographs Cerio without exception exposes the fun rides and the adventure pools in the off-season and therefore devoid of visitors; the ruptures, the bleakness, and the senselessness that become visible behind the amusing façades. For Chinese Fun, the photographer visited a whole range of recreational parks, water landscapes, and sports grounds in Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, and Hong Kong. His centrally organized compositions are made with a plate camera and document selected absurd arrangements—from a concrete fruit basket as large as a house to the looped tracks of an enormous roller coaster in the interior courtyard of an office complex.
 

 
Exhibition: Fondazione VOLUME!, Rome 23.9.–3.11.2015

Publisher source ↗