MARIO is an invention being patented in Italy and Europe. MARIO is a performance concocted for the worst place. MARIO is a project curated by Francesca Lazzarini that has seen involved the people you see here all around the page. We have been presenting it with at ARTISSIMA, (2021), at MIA Photo FAIR in Milan, (2022) and lastly in Venice, at the Galleria Michela Rizzo (2023). MARIO is a device that changes the idea of photography by allowing you to know and feel when a picture of you has been created in the exact moment that picture was shot. MARIO opens up a new space for discussion by stating that the photographer is not free to just anonymously loot images of people and that the person photographed should have at least the chance to know and interact with the image-creator when a picture of himself or herself has been created.
MARIO
Head of Ginger
Alessandro Sambini
Head of Vodka
Francesca Lazzarini
Head of Innovation
Gilberto Decaro
Project Manager and Head of Lime and Glasses
Giovanna Repetto
Project Key Cross-PA
Matteo Razzano – Royal Supervisor from Big Cream
Extreme Pivotal Partners
Vincenzo Miranda – Royal Photographer
Antonio Mazzei – Royal Cloud Interiors Architect
Head of Graphic Forgery
Margherita Fortuna
Design Supervision
Vito Ingoglia
Heads of Precious Heads
Carlo Di Pasquale
Giuseppe Cacciatore
Ilaria Tariello
Salvatore Bongiorno
Alessandra Gatto
Marco Pelos Spagno
Master Culprits
XY and WZ
Dungeon Mentor
Mario Fragnito
Francesca:
MARIO originated from a question: how to perceive photography through senses other than sight? MARIO is synaesthetic: it makes you feel that you have been photographed through the sound or vibration of your device. MARIO revolutionizes the internal relations of photography. For a long time, photographs have been the exclusive domain of photographers: with MARIO, even the subjects photographed have a voice! The purpose of MARIO is to open a channel of communication where there was none before. In this way, MARIO creates relationship, exchange, communication, and trust. MARIO overturns the idea of privacy in photography, dispelling the fear of being unknowingly photographed and the fear that our image may end up in channels unknown to us. It also allows the photographer to relate to his or her subject. MARIO is community: not only because it creates contacts and relationships, nor only because it is born out of group work around an artist’s idea, but also because it provides for forms of active user participation and development based on the involvement of small groups and communities that can interact with the project and discuss its ideas. MARIO is sci-fi: although it is born by mixing the most current components of our time, can we really predict all its future applications? Although it develops through forms such as patent and startup MARIO was born in the arts and intends to maintain this identity. MARIO’s intention is to think of the company as a research device, a hybrid capable of navigating the slippery boundaries that demarcate art, technology, and the marketplace. (2022)