At Mercanteinfiera thirty years of Bob Dylan

Press release

Photographing Bob Dylan. At Mercanteinfiera thirty years of "stolen" shots by Paolo Brillo

For more than 30 years he has chased the "minstrel from Duluth" around the world, infiltrating more than a thousand concerts with a camera, disassembled and hidden on him. A selection of these shots will be on display at Mercanteinfiera from Sept. 30 to Oct. 8. Scheduled during Fiere di Parma's international fair of art, historical modern design and vintage collecting are two other side exhibitions: "In vino veritas: the infinite forms of the corkscrew" and shots from "Communicating fashion: gender imagery, 1960-1980. A journey through the CSAC archives."

________________

(Parma, September 13th) - When the film that consigned James Dean to legend, Rebel Without a Cause, Burnt Youth, arrived in American theaters in 1955, the then 14-year-old Robert Allen Zimmerman, the future Bob Dylan, developed a kind of obsession with the iconic actor who died in a car accident the same year.

It may have been the idea of handsome and damned, the cigarette always between his lips or the intense, melancholy gaze fixed on the camera that hypnotized Dylan, whatever the reason, the same healthy obsession that Dylan developed for James Dean, Paolo Brillo (born 1961) developed years later for Bob Dylan precisely as the exhibition "Paolo Brillo. Stolen Moments. Bob Dylan and Other Music Icons" produced in collaboration with the Milan-based Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea Gallery and scheduled at Mercanteinfiera (Sept. 30-Oct. 8).

Time passes slowly, sang Dylan in 1970, but despite the passage of years Paolo Brillo with the tenacity and obsession of an entomologist, has succeeded in the project of documenting frame by frame, concert by concert the Never Ending Tour, the titanic feat of the American singer-songwriter.

The result of this great work of documentation and passion is a collection of 250 shots collected in the illustrated volume No Such Thing As Forever in thirty years of concerts, from 1989 to 2019, which have in common that they have all been "stolen": Paolo Brillo, has no passes, does not ask for accreditation that perhaps he would be denied,hides the camera - if necessary disassembled to pass the controls - approaches the stage and clicks.

A selection of about 40 shots will be on display in the spaces of Fiere di Parma: a condensation of more than a thousand concerts, of 30 years of history of the "minstrel from Duluth" until his last concert, the one in Milan in July 2023.

What emerges from these images that Brillo began to take at the age of 23 (first concert, Arena di Verona 1984) in addition to his love for the musician, the intellectual, the scholar, the painter and everything else we could add to define the immeasurable, is the constancy with which Brillo "stalked" Dylan live. The result, a photographic repertoire thatis the miraculous because he managed to capture the details of the rock star's face, his gestures, looks-even a half-smile-as never before ( the musician is famous for his phone-free concerts).

There are those who collect Bob Dylan and those who collect corkscrews, an everyday object first drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci in the Atlantic Codex (1482 -1499) and become an exercise in creativity by great designers such as Gio Ponti or iconic fashion designers such as Ralph Lauren or Dior. It will be precisely the corkscrew that will be the protagonist of the second collateral event scheduled at Mercanteinfiera, "In vino veritas: the infinite forms of the corkscrew," curated by Gianfranco Gonizzi Director of the Parma Food Museums.

Closing the 42nd edition of Fiere di Parma's exhibition "Communicating Fashion: gender imagery 1960-1980. A journey through the CSAC archives," a journey through the fashion system between the late 1960s and 1980s that also investigates communication in a phase when feminine and masculine stylistically merged with the same language.

However, antiques, historical design, modern antiques and vintage collecting from fashion to jewelry through great watches (Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin just to name a few) remain the soul of Mercanteinfiera, the international appointment of eclectic collecting destination for more than five thousand buyers from all over the world.

For info www.mercanteinfiera.it

_________________________________

ORGANIZING INFORMATION

When: September 30-October 8

Where: Fiere di Parma Viale delle Esposizioni 393/A

Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Price: 15 euros (at ticket counters); 12 euros (online); free for children up to 14 years old

on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 7 and 8 (Saturday and Sunday), visitors who show their Mercanteinfiera ticket will get free admission to the Sala Baganza Food Museum.

Fiere di Parma switchboard tel. 0521-9961

_________________________________

PRESS CONTACT
Antonella Maia - mobile 349.4757783 - antonella.maia@mirandola.net

Uploaded on 12/09/2023