“Dentro l’oggetto”

Aldo Ballo per il catalogo di Italy: The New Domestic Landscape

Abstract

This article analyzes Aldo Ballo’s photography for the catalog of the exhibition “Italy: The New Domestic Lanscape”. The photographs of the objects, selected for the publication, reflect the mythical aura given to the products on display, enclosed in the cases located in the Sculpture Garden of the MoMA. The celebratory and commercial intent of the event is closely connected to the crystallization of the industrial product in Aldo Ballo’s photographs which give the object a spiritual essence and define them with absolute perfection. In the catalogue, Ballo’s photographs are “industrial portraits”, protagonists who emerge from the neutral and ornamentless space, while the photographic framing enters “inside the object”, interprets it and gives it back a soul.
The contribution investigates the relationship between the work of Aldo Ballo and the publication Italy: The New Domestic Landscape. Achievements and Problems of Italian Design, from the more general perspective of documenting Italian design. A morphological analysis of the photographic contents of the book is also proposed, highlighting their origin following cross-research conducted at the Ballo & Ballo Archive and in the project magazines of the period.