On the occasion of the exhibition The J Line  WHITECONCEPTS has released an interview with Italian photo artist Pietro Celesia.

Your project J-Line combines your interest in the architecture of a city with your fascination for music and film. How did you develop your project? And when did the interest in the architecture of a city, especially in New York start?

I would say it was a matter of coincidences, or ingredients put together to a certain extent randomly, to see what could come out of it. It was my first experience in New York City. I got there from California. With me I had Miles Davis‘ autobiography (that copy belongs to my friend and I hang on to it!); the soundtrack of my trip was “simply” Davis‘ complete discography, which I kept listening to as I read on about his life. I landed at JFK a late October afternoon: there was that kind of sunset light, oddly clear and terse. I took the subway, the J Line, and I slept on Kosciuszko Street, in the Bushwick neighborhood, somewhere round the middle of the line. That’s how it happened, somewhat by chance, somewhat by instinct: I felt drawn to that subway line connecting JFK Airport with Wall Street. As soon as I started to follow the line, i discovered miles of Victorian style suburbs. I was struck by these contrasts. I wandered along the J line by train and foot, back and forth. The only constant was my listening to Miles Davis‘ albums from the fifties, which are seemingly able to condense a series of acrobatic metropolitan stories. With me, I had my body camera, a 100mm macro lens and a 24 mm tilt-and-shift lens – that’s always crucial when I indulge myself in photographing architecture. After years spent developing themes connected to Man / nature relationship, the city has become one of my main focuses of research. That may be also due to my main research topics. 

How would you define your relationship to architecture? Was it more music and literature that triggered your interest in the city or only its architecture?

I have always had a particular connection with architecture, partly because of my studies, partly because of my interest for the concept of personal, individual, interior space; of “home”, whether in an abstract or material sense. So yes, the city intrigues me. In some ways, I see it as the addition of a multitude of personal spaces, with various degrees of intimacy. Architecture reveals people’s characters; their dreams, expectations and desire for self-representation. That amounts to a representation of society as it develops in time. Engraved on the walls of NYC I see the traces of the American dream, the desire for concreteness, for the straightforward matter: for example, the dream immortalized a long time ago by “Weegee’s New York City” and “Manhatta” (the first American avant-garde films). If we accept that architecture is a narrative of society, undoubtedly other artistic fields have had no lesser role in reconstructing the city’s evolution. I especially think of the 50’s jazz, which was in fact born in New York. That music has a similar language, fast, almost frantic, imaginative, precisely because it was created there, in the Big Apple. The instruments seem to speak a particular language, an urban slang. 

How do see the city now? Why did you want to exhibit your project in Berlin?

It seems to me, New York is an arrogant city. The public space almost doesn’t exist, except for the sidewalks. It is fascinating because of its contrasts, its peculiar light: a city that seems without past nor future. Charmingly arrogant. In NYC, there’s only the present. Everything there is ‚to go‘. Having the opportunity to exhibit this work in Berlin is for me a great pleasure. This city is my new home. It is a dynamic, vibrant and powerful place to be in today, where new energies, new ideas and new people from across the globe are converging. I feel lucky to be able to showcase my project, to propose new content and have a feedback from the city itself. I keep hearing people mentioning New York City and Berlin are connected. From my personal experience, I can say that both cities have a remarkable tendency to establish a connection with the foreigner from the start. 

What is your favorite city at the moment and why?

I don’t know! There are really so many cities that I still would like to see, to experience, especially at this moment in time. A famous Italian newspaper writes that Berlin has a better nightlife than both London and NYC. I don’t know if it’s true, but I think that Berlin is currently offering a space for everyone to experience a larger freedom than other cities. Even though the rules are there to be respected, I think this need is somehow originated in the city’s history. An urban space with such characteristics is of course an attraction for all those who want to express themselves freely, both physically and intellectually. I think these are the reasons why Berlin is currently an important centre of artistic expression in Europe. It is not yet the space of its own representation, perhaps, in the way Paris is. 

The project The J-Line is combined with collaborations with musicians. How do you see the connection? Does it give a new direction to your project? Do you like the non-competitive  collaboration? 

Everything started with my personal experience in NYC. Having seen the places, the streets covered by the J line, all the while listening to a kind of music so relevant to their history, I was initially led to connect my photos to a particular album by Miles Davis called Bag’s Groove. I thought it recreated, years later, the atmosphere of the places I visited. At some point, I thought that keeping the jazz inspiration while trying to actualize it would also have been interesting. That’s how, thanks to Eric Vaughn (NakedJazz), the collaboration with Florian Menzel – a Berlin-based composer and trumpeter – and his Band, The Major Minors, started. This young Jazz Band, who recently won the 2013 German Film Award with the soundtrack of the movie ‘Oh Boy’, seemed keen from the very start to work on different creative expressions. Also, I felt that they did understand the expressive needs of the J Line Project fully. This synergy presently propels not only the production of the audiovisual material which will be shown during the exhibition, but also a wider project: a Live Jazz Show, in which music and images accompany the viewer to discover the journey of the J Line. We will see. As for now I cannot but express my joy at having found a group of like-minded people who understand the scope of the project and are ready to work ‘across the board’ to bring it to a full development.

How do you see the inside/outside theme transferred into your photos?

Thanks to the movies, NYC is somehow part of the collective imagery; also, I think it is the city of immediacy, of the downright business, of the here and now – this is why I tried to create a terse, clear image where there is no room for shadows or dangers. A space where, on the contrary, one can feel at ease, free of fear or tensions. Something like urban intimacy. J line itself, so imposing, so unique, seems to have its own character, or personality, not to mention its own history. It cannot remain remote or stranger to the self for long.   

And what about the time experience during the development of the project and later on for the visitor of the exhibition?

I think the most important aspects of the J Line project are interconnection, coexistence and interdependence. This imaginary as well as real line, crossing and connecting parts of the city that are distant culturally, socially and economically, creates bonds and interdependencies. The whole, however, can only exist because of all the parts. This is one of its parts to which I would most like to draw the visitors‘ attention.