Francesco Jodice. WEST

Francesco Jodice. WEST
edited by Francesco Zanot
Electa
Italian
176 pages

The book accompanies the exhibit “West” by Francesco Jodice, shown at the National Archeological Museum of Naples from 8 November 2023 to 8 January 2024, and presents the complete version of Jodice’s research project consisting of 70 images. WEST describes the rise and fall of the last great western empire, from the start of the Gold Rush (1848) to the collapse of Lehman Brothers (2008). During three long trips in the deserts of the American west, one of the planet’s most ancient geological structures, artist and photographer Francesco Jodice reinterprets a part of our history by means of a visual repertory of myths and ruins, utopias, mirages, and failures: the archeology of a present that is already past. In an age of rereading and revisionism, West offers an alternative history of the power and culture of the entire west (not only the United States), but also a tribute to a visionary and perhaps unrepeatable history: that of the most powerful machine of imagination ever invented. The seventy large-scale color photos taken in eleven states - California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and South Dakota – are accompanied by maps and historical/iconographic materials. The book includes texts and theoretical essays by Francesco Zanot, Matteo Balduzzi, Francesco Costa, and Mario Calabresi.