Looking for Busto Arsizio on Google, one of the most explanatory descriptions of the Italian municipality – inhabited by 90,000 people – is the one we find above Wikipedia. «[…] an important industrial and commercial hub in an urbanized context.” Second Alessandro Galli, class of ’98, Busto Arsizio on the other hand «is an original copy of any other city in the Milanese hinterland, with the ambition of always remaining the same». From this reflection was born 21052 copy (of copy) originala photographic project that wants to give an unconventional vision of Busto Arsizio, paying attention to what i bustocchi they take for granted. In short, a reflection on the province capable of making us reflect on the city-hinterland dichotomy so present in our country.
21052 original copy, a reportage from Busto Arsizio according to Alessandro Galli
And from 2021 that Alessandro Galli is trying to move to Milan. Now that he has succeeded, he wanted to retrace with us the years of waiting in Busto Arsizio, the immobility of a province that, seeing many of its young inhabitants leave, decides not to change, to always remain the same. Galli’s intention is to reflect on urban decay and the lack of improvements implemented over time. But not only that, in Galli’s shots there is also a particular – and alienating – type of beauty, which usually goes unnoticed.
The reflection on the province also branches out in a fanzine, released last year, which traces all the places where Galli decided to shoot. There are also five things that the photographer says are worth knowing about Busto and about him. An expedient which, in addition to the shots, allows us to go beyond the image but also a real greeting to his city where – at least in part – he developed his aesthetic taste. Some of the photographs reflect Busto Arsizio’s ambition to resemble Milan in significant stillness. There is the girl poised on tiptoe, the construction sites, the businesses first open then closed. Even the neglect around the Castellanza station it is particularly significant according to the photographer. There are also images that according to Galli are “closely linked to his photographic taste”, such as that of underpass illuminated by a green traffic light or the unkempt bush at the entrance of an apartment building in Busto Arsizio.
The fanzine
21052 copy (of copy) original was born in 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 emergency. With the end of the curfew, on a Saturday morning at 5, the photographer left five copies of the fanzine around the city in five locations together with a flyer with the graphics you see below in the slider. First a kind of Terms and Conditions to accept when you start living in Busto Arsizio and then a map of the places according to Galli. An original idea that talks about the province in a certainly innovative way. Also included in the flyer is the most important work of art preserved in the city. It’s about the Anonymous painting from 17th century and stored in Museum of Sacred Art San Michele Arcangelo. The work depicts a priest blessing a plague victim in the hospital in Busto Arsizio.
Some of Alessandro Galli’s photographs will be on display from 2 to the May 5th from Liquida PhotoFestival.
