The never finished Topolino

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It happens so often. A man is working on a restoration project and is is overtaken by ill health or death. The project is abandonned or finished by somebody else and nobody will remember the man who started it. Not so with the father of artist Erik Kessels and the Topolino project form his father. 

Erik Kessels’ father suffered a stroke and can barely speak or move since. Prior to this, he was very active in the hobby. His projects included restoring examples of that Italian icon: the  “Topolino”.  In the past he completed four such restorations and was working on a fifth, the half-finished pictured car which was left abandoned at his home.

To Erik this project came to represent his unfinished father. And he decided to use the car as a basis of a new project, which appears as an exhibition in Reggio Emilia (Italy) as well as a book. Erik transported his dad’s last Topolino to Italy and presents it alongside intimately detailed images his father made to document its restoration. This work is about a man who — like his vehicle — was stopped in a proces and will never be complete again.  

(Photos courtesy Erik Kessels)

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