Artist's book.
“I like to photograph tennis courts when they're empty, deserted,
abandoned, or in disrepair, and sometimes simply when it's raining and no
one's around and they can't be used. Seeing them in such a state has, for
me, a special kind of eroticism, like the memory of a former lover one
still feels for. Each court is in the midst of a landscape, near homes,
among trees, or next to streets or buildings. Some are like the ghosts of
a tennis court, with faded markings and sagging nets, where too many
seasons have passed and not enough care has been given to them. Gathered
together, these unoccupied tennis courts engender a special kind of
metaphysic, one that relates to the ceremonial combat of an organized
competition; the aesthetic atmosphere in which freedom and struggle
flourish. Seeing courts in such varied states as these is like coming upon
a memory, a new beginning, and another possibility all at once.”
Giasco Bertoli, Summer 2013
Giasco Bertoli (born 1965 in Cevio, Switzerland) is a
photographer and filmmaker, working in Paris since 2000. The cultural currency of his work, since the 1990s, has focused on sports, cinema, youth, music, sexuality, nostaligia, humor, and history. He is a regular contributor to various international publications.
