Bar Sport off, undertaken in 2012, was born from a reinterpretation of Bar Sport, a book by Stefano Benni written in 1976, portraying the surreal dynamics enlivening within a quintessentially-Italian environment, the “Bar Sport”. Not a simple coffee-shop, but a reality defined by very distinct features, starting from its furniture or the typical objects populating it, such as a pinball, a pay phone and a billiard table and, most importantly, by its customers.

The photographs showcased in Bar sport off are a translation of the tales created between the tables of the coffee-shop, by tongues sharpened by alcohol. The images were created between the “bar”'s walls and took place in other places populated by men whose nicknames make them grotesque while underlining their humiliation, surreal women engaging in unthinkable tasks, movie theatres attended by people sinking into their own stories. Similarly to her previous works, this project's protagonists are residents of the author's birth town, non-professional actors dressing the part of the characters.

VALENTINA VANNICOLA