Stefano Cerio

The ground is covered in snow, the horizon a dark line of mountains; low milky clouds hide the sky. In the foreground, a shapeless form, a strange sagging mass of bright colorsred, blue and yellowstirs as it fills with air. In less than a minute a popular fairground attraction appears: an inflatable, rotund form, awkward and genial, shaped like a double slide or a springboard, the kind often seen in childrens play areas, at fairs and village gatherings. Along with other inflatables in the same veina chubby castle complete with dragon, a football pitchthe slide is part of the bizarre landscape conjured up in Stefano Cerios Aquila, a series of photographs taken in Abruzzo at different times of year and in highly impactful settings not far from L Aquila, on the plains of Campo Felice, Campo Imperatore and Pescasseroli.