On Saturday, 5th of April the gallery Ciocca Arte Contemporanea will be inaugurating a solo show of the Iranian artist Abbas Kiarostami, entitled Snow White, a renowned compilation of black and white photographs, taken from 1978 until today, already on exhibition in many of the world's foremost museums.

The works are all images of natural landscapes, with a special focus on trees and the patterns they create through the shadows their trunks and branches cast on the dazzling and uneven surface of sun-bathed snow. The result is a minimal, almost abstract representation which invites us, through the simple purity of line, to immerse ourselves in this harsh and yet sublime realm.

The sensation of complete solitude is occasionally interrupted by figures in the distance - a dog, a horse, a flight of birds - as if to bring us back from the disorientation of the journey we have undertaken.

The landscape, so bare and harsh, acquires a heightened stylized representation through its grey tonalities and conjures up a mood of solitary meditation, creating a strong emotional impact on the visitor… as if the artist - through his gaze - were seeking to infuse us with the countless unanswerable questions that suddenly surface when one observed the world in its simplicity.

Closing the show is the magical video installation Summer Afternoon: in an intimate "interior", a fan, placed behind the spectator, gives him the sensation of standing in front of an actual window, curtains and trees move in a real breeze… as if the artist wanted to confront us with the difference between seeing and looking.

When you love someone, you photograph them - you only have to look at your family album.My family album is full of photographs of nature........................Abbas Kiarostami

Snow White, 1978/2003 - Inkjet on cotton paper

Snow White, 1978/2003 - Inkjet on cotton paper

Snow White, 1978/2003 - Inkjet on cotton paper

Snow White, 1978/2003 - Inkjet on cotton paper

Snow White, 1978/2003 - Inkjet on cotton paper

Snow White, 1978/2003 - Inkjet on cotton paper

Snow White, 1978/2003 - Inkjet on cotton paper

Stenersen Museum - Abbas Kiarostami - "Shadows in the Snow"