INVISIBLE CITIES

My most recent body of work is called Invisible Cities after the book by Italo Calvino where the explorer Marco Polo reports back on his travels to cities far and wide to Kubla Khan, the emperor who has conquered so many foreign lands that he has lost touch with the scope of his kingdom.

My background as an architect inspires me when I travel to cities around the world. On my journeys, I record my impressions through photography, audio recordings, sketches and watercolors. I also collect ephemera such as maps and letters and found objects. Once back at my art studio, I look at what I’ve gathered and revisit my journals and I am inspired all over again. I want to transcribe my experiences of travel and of cities onto large canvases. Sometimes the result is a collage of many cities and in this way I am hoping to capture the essence of “every city.”

Flavio

FLAVIO BISCIOTTI: INVISIBLE CITIES

By Peter Frank

I have constructed in my mind a model city from which all possible cities can be deduced. It contains everything corresponding to the norm.
I have also thought of a model city from which I deduce all the others.
I will arrive at one of the cities which, always as an exception exist.
I would achieve cities too probable to be real. – Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Visual artists and architects, you would suppose, would think about cities similarly, as built landscapes, as entirely manmade spaces to be admired and despised, by turn or at once, for their artfulness. (READ MORE)

long version 10.45 min.

Chapter XX

"Chapter XX" Part 1 (2017)
Acrylic on canvas
73 x 49 in; 185 x 124 cm
"Chapter XX" Part 2
Acrylic on canvas
73 x 76 in; 185 x 192 cm
"Chapter XX" Part 3
Acrylic on canvas
73 x 102 in; 185 x 259 cm
(diptych)
"Chapter XX" Part 4
Acrylic on canvas
73 x 102 in; 185 x 259 cm
(diptych)