In chemistry, the process of synthesis commonly refers to the combination of parts or elements so as to form a whole. Similarly, Sintesi SS9 is for Vitturi a process of collection and assembling of street-found fragments in the attempt to reconstruct the visual essence of a changing urban area.

On the occasion of Fotografia Europea Festival 2016, Vitturi was invited to explore the Via Emilia, an ancient Roman road which runs through Northern Italy, to observe how the area has changed over the last thirty years – after Luigi Ghirri’s project “Explorations Along the Via Emilia” made in 1968.

The project was realised over a six-month period during which Vitturi traveled along the entire route, researching and recording its most iconic elements. This journey culminated in the exhibition Nuove Esplorazioni (New Explorations), presented at Chiostri di San Pietro in Reggio Emilia. Vitturi attempted to deconstruct the urban reality of the Via Emilia and to make it visible through its materials and shapes, adopting a multidisciplinary process which combines photography, sculpture, and installation.

During his explorations, Vitturi encountered recurring architectural details such as industrial sheds and retail buildings and later presented them in fragments or in their entirety in his compositions. Most of the materials visible in his still life are sourced in these buildings: fabrics, plastic sheets, industrial debris, as well as organic, locally produced goods. The debris and other elements found on the street were photographed and collected along the route and then reassembled at the Chiostri di San Pietro, where the project was shown. The exhibition space became part of the research process itself, where Vitturi recreated the layering of different traces and narratives discovered along the Via Emilia.

Droste Effect, Debris and Other Problems is a project Vitturi first begun in 2013, drawing on a host of fragments and debris retrieved from the dump of Dalston: the area of London where he lives, subjected to a growing process of gentrification and real estate development, with new luxury buildings and chain stores, inside an area characterised by a strong multicultural presence.

The objects found are just the starting point from which Vitturi’s work develops: once photographed, their images are printed and combined with other elements. The compositions themselves then become the subject of new photographs, staged within actual sets, the colours of which reference those of the real sculptures.

The only trace that remains of man is that which may be seen on the advertising posters of estate agents. Just like a painting featuring a smaller version of itself within it, this series proceeds through cross-references and layers, giving a voice to the chaotic nature of the transformations ushered in by urban redevelopment.

Dalston Anatomy is a visual celebration of the Ridley Road Market in East London. The project was presented for the first time in 2013 as a photo-book, a month-long performance, and installations. Vitturi recognised the market as a unique place where different communities and cultures coexist, and decided to capture the energy and traces of this place before it transformed beyond recognition.

Having lived in the area for seven years, Vitturi visited the market daily and witnessed the local community, its economy and the very nature of the market changing around him with striking acceleration. From this complex process of transformation, stems Vitturi’s compulsion to collect and picture objects and people encountered at the market. Organic materials were left to rot, manipulated with pigment or deconstructed and then rearranged in compositions and photographed against discarded market materials before and after their collapse. The ephemerality of these sculptures mirrors the impermanent nature of a rapidly changing neighborhood, while their reintroduction in the exhibition space as photographic images, allows reflections on constant cycles of production, destruction, and recreation.

Anthropocene is the result of a reflection on the relationship between man and nature, as it proposes – in line with 16th Century naturalistic painting – a symbolic system able to visualise the intersection between these two dimensions.

Up to the early 20th Century, nature had been represented as an unspoiled pure space animated by uncontrollable forces. Today, after only one century, nature has proved to be a fragile system, which survival is highly dependent on an increasingly pervasive and destructive anthropisation. In such a context, where equilibrium and rules are being overthrown, how can we still depict nature and men? Nature is losing its features, while humankind is increasingly taking control over the whole cycle of life.

Starting from this paradox, Vitturi’s project consists of a series of images where installations built within a derelict location play a central role. In these visions, the mise en scène becomes a tool to simulate Nature, which appears less authentic and indeed a cultural product. Each image is the result of a meticulous process of set design and sculptural composition, made with building materials, industrial remains, natural pigments, and fake plants.