„Brutalist and Modernist structures are not just architecture to me; they are emotional landscapes, timeless monuments to human vision and daring. I don’t aim to capture their perfection but the truth they told, the dreams they crystallize, and the courage of the architects who gave them form.“
I simply couldn’t not quote Stefano Perego’s impressive vision and motivation preluding his latest book, aptly titled „Concrete, Mon Amour - The Raw Imprint of Modernism“ and recently published by Gestalten: Perego’s words, even if the reader didn’t know them, would probably come to the conclusion that they are exactly what drives the artist and what he gives expression to in his work. Perego’s photographs are both breathtaking depictions of the heroic spirit inscribed in modernist and brutalist architecture but they also are subject to decay, disrepair, changing tastes and, let’s face it, the ravages of time. In line with this realization Perego shows them „as found“ with all of their imperfections but at the same time lends them a fascinating beauty and dignity. By focusing on the surfaces and, so to say, the cracks and wrinkles of the buildings he conveys a haptic quality that makes the reader wish to physically touch them in order to feel the roughness, the splits and cracks of the concrete.
Over the course of more than a decade Perego has extensively traveled the world and thus the book is also organized along geographical regions ranging from the Far East to Southern Europe. Accordingly, the book features quirky buildings from Japan, the Spomeniks of the former Yugoslavia, German Brutalism and daring Italian bridges, all of them captured and reproduced beautifully in the book. "Concrete, Mon Amour" hence is a wonderful homage to the concrete monsters of the world and warmly recommended to all fellow Brutalists and lovers of concrete!
