Lin Zhipeng. Free Love Chronicles

Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting is glad to present Free Love Chronicles, the first solo show in Italy dedicated to Chinese photographer Lin Zhipeng and curated by Rebecca Delmenico.

The exhibition presents 25 famous shots and recent images by this Chinese photographer from Guandong, born in 1979 and also known as no.223 (编号223). This name is a homage to the eponymous character in the film by Wong Kar-Wai, Chungking Express.

Destined for a career in finance, Zhipeng graduates from the University of Foreign Studies with a specialisation in Financial English. But it's the opening of a blog by the title North Latitude 23 in 2003, in which every day he publishes his shots accompanied by stories that shortly turns him into a celebrity, first on the web and then in the world of international photography. According to the curator, Rebecca Delmenico, the reason for the success of his photography project is due to the fact that the work of Lin Zhipeng reflects the spirit of the generation of Chinese people born after the eighties and nineties: Zhipeng tells a collective story which also encompasses his life and his personal growth.

The title of the show Free Love Chronicles is the story of a photography project which, dating back 20 years, from mere chronicle has been turned into a large photography corpus: the protagonists of the gallery of portraits are friends of the photographer or acquaintances met on the web with whom the artist forms a very tight human and intimate bond by the means of his images. The narrative is light and gritty, poised between tenderness and melancholy. Its protagonist is freed sexuality, the fruit of the desire to express oneself beyond any kind of prejudice. Zhipeng and his young protagonists share the vision of the practice of photography as a tool freeing them from their most genuine and authentic vital energy, of which love, food and sexuality are an integral part. As Delmenico writes, the works of Lin Zhipeng are saturated with a tender sense of lightness and playful innocence to express a natural and free lifestyle made of understanding of the world and freedom.

Lin Zhipeng's photography grammar feeds on free associations among apparently distant elements, capable of creating a language which is more hinting than direct: the figurative free associations are such that they recreate an atmosphere and a feeling in which an entire generation mirrors.... read the rest of the article»