Patrizia Mussa is an Italian
photographer arguably best known for her ongoing series dedicated to Italian
theaters titled "Teatri - Photopastels". Starting in 2000, the series feature
images of theaters reinterpreted not as places of historical representation,
but rather as "open, unfinished forms", architectural spaces
gradually consumed and transformed by time. Mussa also has other notable
projects, including "Le Temple du Soleil" (2008), which focused on
the utopian architecture of the French philosopher Jean Balladur. In 2016, she
started "Warless Theatres", focusing on the landscapes of
Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ethiopia. She took the images while the sites were
still accessible. Since then, the artist has reinterpreted these images
differently – by retouching each print with pastel. Based between Turin and
Paris, Patrizia Mussa studied Philosophy at the University of Turin and
attended the Cultural Anthropology course at Sorbonne.
Featured image: Patrizia Mussa - Teatro
Ollimpico Palladio, 2018-2020 (detail). Archival pigment print with hand-applied
pastel. 23 3/5 × 27 3/5 × 2/5 in. 60 × 70 × 1 cm. Edition of 7 + 1AP. Photo
courtesy Galerie XII