Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

FRANCESCO VEZZOLI’s art photographed by MANUELA PAVESI    Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom: Italian photographer Manuela Pavesi recently bought the villa near Mantova where Pier Paolo Pasolini shot his last film. In this exceptional house, enrolling the artist Francesco Vezzoli, she re-enacts haunting scenes from this visionary film and summons up its lingering cinematic ghosts. OLIVIER ZAHM — You bought the house where Pasolini shot Salò, or the 120 days of Sodom. What attracted you to it? MANUELA PAVESI — I’m Italian and believe the Renaissance was Italy’s best era. Giulio Romano built the house in the sixteenth-century and the proportions are typical of the period. I love the forest around it. The 500-year-old trees. It’s located in a village called Villimpenta, twenty minutes from Mantova. The surrounding countryside is real Italian farm landscape. OLIVIER ZAHM — How did you feel the first time you visited the house? FRANCESCO VEZZOLI — Shocked…