Fotografia Europea 2015 – Effetto Terra
Dal 15 al 17 maggio ci saranno a Reggio Emilia le giornate inaugurali del Festival di Fotografia Europea 2015. Il festival, arrivato alla decima edizione, comprende come sempre mostre, conferenze, workshop e proiezioni: quest’anno il tema è il rapporto tra uomo e natura ed è legato in qualche modo a quello di Expo 2015. Il titolo di questa edizione è infatti Effetto Terra: fotografi e curatori sono stati invitati “a esplorare ambiti d’indagine legati alla rappresentazione del pianeta, alla salvaguardia dell’ambiente, alle ricchezze del territorio, ai nuovi equilibri che si instaurano tra le ragioni della Terra e l’intervento umano, fino al dinamico rapporto tra uomo, natura e tecnologia”. sedi varie – Reggio Emilia 15 maggio – 26 luglio 2015 orario: vario, a seconda della sede espositiva ingresso: intero 12,00 € | ridotto 9,00 € | ingresso gratuito per visitatori di età inferiore ai 12 anni, disabili e accompagnatori, giornalisti accreditati e soci Icom info: 0522 456249 info@fotografiaeuropea.it www.fotografiaeuropea.it
Paul Strand a Madrid
3 June – 23 August 2015
US photographer Paul Strand (New York, 1890 – Orgeval, France, 1976) is considered to be one of the most important photographers of the 20th century.
This retrospective takes a chronological trip through the six decades that his career spanned (1910s-1960s) in a narrative that starts with the initial efforts of the artist to establish photography as a key form of independent artistic expression through to the maturity of his distinctive portraits of people and places which often took on the form of printed books
Paseo de Recoletos, 23 Madrid
Shadi Ghadirian – The others me a Milano
Opening: Thursday, April 23, 2015 April 23, 2015 – June 21, 2015 curated by Silvia Cirelli
The role of women in the Iranian society, the clash between modernity and tradition, the ghosts of bloody past conflicts (Iran-Iraq war), are all topical issues pointed out by one of the greatest Middle Eastern photographers of our time. From April 23 to June 21 2015, Officine dell’Immagine in Milan hosts the largest solo exhibition ever held in Italy dedicated to Shadi Ghadirian (Tehran, 1974). Curated by Silvia Cirelli, the exhibition represents an unprecedented opportunity to explore the artistic career of this celebrated photographer, from the early works of the late ’90s to her latest projects.
Already well known internationally and certainly one of the key figures of the art scene in the Middle East, Shadi Ghadirian is among the protagonists of the next Venice Biennial. Invited to display her work in prestigious museums including the British Museum in London and the CCCB in Barcelona, her work is present in large public collections, such as those of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Boston Fine Art Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the British Museum and Mumok in Vienna.
The Exhibition The solo exhibition in Milan, entitled The Others Me, retraces the distinctive features of Shadi Ghadirian’s poetry, offering her personal insight into the contradictions of today’s Iran, with a particular focus on the status of women in the contemporary society. Ghadirian leaves an expressive but at the same time delicate and sharp impression, able to attest the complexities and ambiguities of a divided social context like the one of Iran.
The photographs of the Miss Butterfly series (2011) open the exhibition. The series contains evocative shots in black and white that reflect women weaving unusual cobwebs in the privacy of their own home. A poetic and evocative lyricism is combined with an instilled perception of painful silence, in turn accentuated by the contrast between the darkness of the rooms and that one light beam on which the web grabs onto. The series is inspired by an ancient Iranian fable, Miss Butterfly, which tells of a butterfly that, eager to meet the sun, falls unfortunately captive in a spider’s web.
The female figure is a key topic also in Like Everyday, 2002 – one of Ghadirian’s most famous series – where women covered in floral chadors have modern kitchen utensils instead of faces. The photographs are a subtle criticism the artist moves against her country, highlighting the inconsistencies of a society where the urgencies of modernity and globalization clash, on a social level, with the legacy of a culture of strong contradictions.
The exhibition continues with the famous photographs of the Qajar (1998) project, in which the artist reconstructs the scenes typical of the Qajar dynasty, reigning in Iran for about 150 years (1794-1925). Shadi Ghadirian adds certain modern “prohibited items” to the vintage scenarios – a camera, a phone, female cosmetic or sunglasses – creating a clear scenic collision, allegory of a congenital basic ambivalence.
The balance between paradoxes finally returns in the Nil, Nil (2008) series where Ghadirian combines simple and harmless household objects with items symbolising aggression and pain, introducing the war as part of everyday life. The series is a reflection on the sad fact that Iranian people unfortunately continue to deal with the atrocities and suffering of past conflicts: the bloody war with Iraq is not so distant into the past (1980-1988).
Biography Shadi Ghadirian was born in Tehran (Iran) in 1974, where she currently lives and works. She graduated Photography at Azad University of Tehran. To her credit she has numerous exhibitions in major foreign museums, such as the Boston Fine Art Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Hong Kong Art Centre, the CCCB in Barcelona, the MUMOK in Vienna, the Beirut Exhibition Centre or the San Jose Museum of Art of New York; she participated at the Festivals and Biennials, such as the Venice Biennial (2015), the International Photo Festival of Kusadasi in Turkey (2012), the Photo Espana Festival (2011), the Noorderlicht Photo Festival in Holland (2007), the Photography Festival in Istanbul (2007), the Photo Biennial of Moscow (2004), the Luxembourg Biennial (2004) and the Sharjah Biennial (2003).
Free entrance Hours: tuesday – saturday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.; monday and holidays by appointment.
CZECH FUNDAMENTALS Fotografia ceca di avanguardia e contemporanea dal 1920 a oggi. Roma
La mostra guida il visitatore in un dialogo con la fotografia di origine ceca, in un percorso che si muove tra il nuovo e lo storico: partendo dai primi movimenti d’avanguardia degli anni ‘20, si giunge ad un’ampia selezione di artisti contemporanei i cui lavori incarnano un approccio autoriale e sperimentale al mezzo fotografico.
Nella prima sezione, che comprende il Costruttivismo, il Surrealismo e la Nuova Oggettività dal 1920 al 1945, sono esposte fotografie che si sono rivelate fondamentali nello sviluppo di una visione specificatamente ceca: i nudi di Frantisek Drtikol, le composizioni contemplative di Jaroslav Rossler e Jaromir Funke, gli arrangiamenti surreali di Vaclav Zykmund e le nature morte poetiche di Josef Sudek.
La seconda sezione presenta l’Arte Informale, il Surrealismo e il Minimalismo del periodo che va dal dopoguerra agli anni ‘70, mentre la terza e ultima sezione abbraccia la fotografia di studio, il Postmodernismo e la Nuova Sperimentazione degli anni ’90, concentrandosi sulle diverse visioni moderne e contemporanee di autori cechi e slovacchi che sono stati punto di riferimento nell’arco degli ultimi trent’anni.
Essi rappresentano l’ultima generazione non ancora assorbita dalla globalizzazione e la digitalizzazione, che nei decenni successivi hanno cambiato radicalmente la visione della fotografia ceca e non solo.
Gunther Dietrich, Suzanne Pastor, Gabriele Agostini
Postato da Anna