We use to get in touch with people, more than with objects, so this way to figure out an urban identity in a human metaphor, makes everything easier. At the end of this long process of discovering the city’s personality, I can focus on its strongest features, both aesthetic and psychological, so finally the city looks to me just like a familiar person. I also read many books about it I watch movies where the urban reality is the protagonist. When I sketch a city, my aim is to understand it deeply by observing its streets and daily life, speaking with the inhabitants and the people who work in this town, looking on the way they see the city itself. I think it's a more direct and fun way to get in touch with the metropolis, its personality and its secrets, just as if you were talking to a friend. In fact, considering cities as people, London also tells us about itself in the first person. The title I am London refers to the fact that in my book the city speaks for itself. Zohra: What's the idea behind the name of the book I am London, as well as the exhibition, London Calling?Ĭarlo: Thank you for this question, it allows me to deepen the meaning of the book itself. It was a beautiful encounter with London.Ģ5 illustrations done for Stanga’s book I am London (Moleskine, 2016) are presented together with 15 unpublished drawings, in pencil and ink Image: Rocco Soldini I couldn't wait to get out and experience it! So my encounter with London went against the stereotypes that portray it as grey, foggy and rainy, revealing to me a colourful and warm metropolis, almost always 30 degrees in that particular summer, and to be experienced outdoors. From the window of my room, my gaze sweeped over the city, from the park to the BT Tower, so every morning London bid me good morning, presenting itself in all its multifaceted and attractive reality. I remember that it was a very tall building on Marylebone Road, on the edge of Regent's Park. I stayed for the whole month of August in the student house of the Polytechnic of Central London. Zohra: When did you first visit the city? Do you recall a fond memory from that time?Ĭarlo: I first visited London 30 years ago. The works capture intimate architectural details of various buildings and landmarks of London, allowing it to speak for itself Image: Rocco Soldini So it was really exciting to portray the life of this unique metropolis to produce the book I am London, published by Moleskine in 2017. Such a dialectic generates extremes and eccentric phenomena, not alien to the typical British humour, in every sphere.ĭrawing London, in other words observing it in depth, allows me to confront an incredible variety of architectural styles and contrasts that stimulate curiosity and creativity. The atmosphere that you breathe in London is permeated by this very dialogue that resolves itself in a well-balanced equilibrium between conservative vision, guardian of the past, and impetus towards the future. These two opposing characteristics generate a positive tension that pervades many aspects: architecture, politics, fashion, design, society and the mentality of the inhabitants. Zohra Khan: What is it about London that fascinates you?Ĭarlo Stanga: What inspires me most about London is the contrast between tradition and contemporaneity. Intrigued to know more, I connected with him on an email conversation.īerlin-based architectural illustrator Carlo Stanga (right) at the opening of the exhibition Image: Rocco Soldini The idea of these drawings for him, as he tells STIR, is to express the atmosphere and identity of what shapes London’s unrepeatability. A close look at Stanga’s compositions comprising buildings, and urban spaces-be it landmarks or decrepit pockets, an imposing spectacle or a prosaic encounter-one discovers things that often go unnoticed, or doesn’t show up in plain sight. The exhibition titled London Calling presents a series of meticulous drawings and illustrations, each artwork put together as a multilayered theatrical scene observing the spirit of the British city. I think it's a more direct and fun way to get in touch with the metropolis, its personality and its secrets, just as if you were talking to a friend," says the Berlin-based Italian artist Carlo Stanga as I tried picking his mind to know what inspired his ongoing showcase at Galleria Bonvini in Milan. "Considering cities as people, London also tells us about itself in the first person.
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