Are You Happy?

Inquiring into a Society's HappinessDuring his residency at the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome, the photographer G ran Gnaudschun (b. 1971) avoided thepostcard-perfect Rome that attracts millions of tourists. For the seriesAre You Happy? the artist instead trained his lens on the Eternal City'seastern periphery and its residents. They live in cramped conditions, in tenements surrounded by brownfields. Only a stone's throw away, the ancient city wall separates neighborhoods preferred by a youngand upwardly mobile crowd from the outlying districts.Gnaudschun strolled through these so-called deprived areas, exploring their high-rise complexes and failed urban renewal projects.In portraits that capture the individuality of their subjects andatmospheric renditions of the austere architecture that is characteristicof Rome's east, Gnaudschun offers a searching analysis of theurban fabric in which everyday life is set and the rhythms thatorganize its time. With essays by Emilia Giorgi, G ran Gnaudschun, Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten, and Marie-Am lie zu Salm-Salm.