Italian School / Італійська школа

Sergey Bratkov / Сергій Братков

Italian School / Італійська школа
2001

Media

Photography, (x9).

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. M00076_02).

Italian School consists of a number of staged photographs which depict performances of biblical scenes, enacted by children living in a youth detention centre. The children are surrounded by symbols unfamiliar to them, and through their ignorance, seem to be victims of the game. Both the strong contrasts between light and dark and the theatricality of the pictures subtly refer to the work of Italian baroque painter Caravaggio (1571-1610). Caravaggio made use of chiaroscuro and had homeless city dwellers model for the biblical figures on his paintings— not unlike Bratkov did for Italian School.