“The JOB Collection” (1994- today), is a work in progress made on cigarette rolling paper booklets. Lanzarini draws stories in them, some delirious, some based on everyday life, some absurd and others representing social and political narratives. Due to the transparency of the paper these “books” are made of, each sheet transfers its story to subsequent pages, making each book an “endless” accumulation of meanings. An installation of hundreds of these books (at this time he has collected 800 booklets), generates an extreme density of information.

 

“Conceptually, the “JOB” series reads as a statement on the fragility of drawing as a medium, as the figures are sketched on delicate squares of non-archival paper, designed to be consumed by flames. They often incorporate pencil shavings, waste from the consumption of materials necessary for their own creation. These drawings are haunted by the specter of their own destruction: the cigarette paper could easily be used for its intended function, and then all those mysterious men and exotic outfits would literally go up in smoke. The vulnerability of the drawing can be read as a metaphor for the destiny of the individual in modern society. Like Lanzarini’s cigarette paper drawings, the individual is a fragile construct forever threatened by the forces of alienation and destruction.”

“Vitamin D- New Perspectives in Drawing" (Phaidon Press, 2005), Ed. Emma Dexter, text by Ruben Gallo