Luca Piffaretti: Controcorrente

The images on display tell the complex story of a river whose ecosystem has been profoundly transformed over the last two centuries: first through the channelling and exploitation of its waters for agricultural purposes, then through industrial expansion which, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, threatened its very existence. Today, alongside regeneration projects and the desire to preserve the river’s ecosystem, industrial activity remains an integral part of the area’s identity.
In the main hall of Casa Pessina, medium- to large-format photographs and monumental prints affixed directly to the walls are presented in an irregular arrangement that evokes the course and flow of the river. In the side rooms, which house the permanent collection of sculptures by Apollonio Pessina, Piffaretti has chosen to present a dialogue between his works and black-and-white photographs by Giovanni Luisoni (1944), a photographer from Stabio who has been documenting the very same places explored by Controcorrente for many years. Two perspectives and two sensibilities thus converge along the banks of the same river, revealing to the public the complexity and unexpected beauty of a constantly changing landscape.