Mario Dondero - Fernando Arrabal, Parigi, anni 60

A rare and intense portrait of writer, playwright and filmmaker Fernando Arrabal, photographed by Mario Dondero, probably in Paris during the 1960s.
Arrabal is shown as a young man wearing glasses and a distinctive striped sweater, captured in a spontaneous and contemplative pose. The artworks and images visible on the walls create an environmental portrait, far removed from conventional official portraiture and highly representative of Dondero’s personal approach to writers, artists and intellectuals.
After moving to Paris in 1955, Mario Dondero came into direct contact with many leading figures of European culture. His portraits were not merely celebratory images: they grew out of personal encounters and sought to convey the character, surroundings and human presence of his subjects.
Fernando Arrabal, born in Melilla in 1932 and established in France from 1955, is one of the most radical figures in post-war European theatre. A playwright, poet, novelist and filmmaker, he founded the Panic Movement in 1962 together with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roland Topor, developing a form of theatrical and artistic experimentation closely connected with the legacy of Surrealism.
The encounter between Dondero and Arrabal makes this photograph a significant visual document of the European avant-garde culture of the second half of the twentieth century.