‘Eyes on Tomorrow. Young Italian Photography in the World‘ is an original project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, aiming at the international promotion of the most interesting artistic researches currently taking place in the Italian art scene.
The project includes a large widespread exhibition on show in eleven cities around the world – Addis Ababa, Algiers, Barcelona, Dublin, Melbourne, Mexico City, Montevideo, Moscow, Munich, New Delhi, Valletta – in order to promote, beyond the Italian borders, young emerging talents in the field of photography, through works that ideally become a way to connect the world.
The exhibition promotes the Italian photographic culture abroad, and brings to the world stage the experience of Giovane Fotografia Italiana, the open call for artists led by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, which reached its 9th edition in 2021. At the heart of the project is the idea of approaching photography as artistic research, experimentation and contamination of different media and languages.
Curators Ilaria Campioli and Daniele De Luigi selected three artists for each of the fourteen main themes (Heritage, Identity, Power, Roots, Stories, Nomadic Life, Secrets, Youth, Dreams, Enlightenment, Horizons, Daily Life, Correspondances, Perspectives).
As the annual AMACI (Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums) event Contemporary Art Day 2021 is celebrated in December, three Italian Cultural Institutes are set to open the project.
On December 9th, 2021 the exhibition ‘Youth‘ opens at Museo Blanes, thanks to the support of the Italian Cultural Institute of Montevideo.
Childhood places rediscovered during the pandemic, a coming-of-age trip and the tale of a small community of teenagers on the island of Procida are the themes explored by Tomaso Clavarino, Marta Giaccone and Luca Massaro.
In ‘Ballad of Woods and Wounds’, Tomaso Clavarino traces his personal roots, as well as roots belonging to people around him, and to a new life, highlighting the tension that pervades our living nowadays.
With ‘Return to Arturo’s island’, Marta Giaccone explores Procida, the island where Elsa Morante’s novel ‘Arturo’s Island’ is set, lingering on something that looks like a spell cast upon its inhabitants by the island and its citrusy microcosm.
Luca Massaro’s project ‘Dictionary Vol.1’ creates an abstract image that refers at the same time to current media landscapes, pictorial art history and the relationship between images and words.
On December 7th and 8th, celebrating the opening of “Eyes on Tomorrow. Young Italian Photography in the world”, artists Tomaso Clavarino and Luca Massaro are offering a workshop at Museo Blanes in Montevideo.
Starting on December 2021, the exhibition works grouped under the project theme ‘Perspectives‘ are to be opened at the Italian Culture Institute of New Delhi.
Perception and representation are at the center of the works presented by Giulia Flavia Baczynski and Giuseppe De Mattia.
Both artists explore the mechanisms through which we perceive images: the mental and physical switch triggered by visuals. They do so by using constructive models: Baczynski’s geographical maps and De Mattia’s small objects.
‘Imagines Mundi’ by Giulia Baczynski is a research in which images act as instruments for a fictional cosmography. In ‘Poor Objects’, Giuseppe De Mattia questions the ideas of proportion and perspective in the field of photography.
‘Roots‘ and ‘Power‘ are the themes on show within the premises of the Italian Cultural Institute of Mexico City.
The theme ‘Roots’ is explored by Federica Landi by telling of the deep connection between a community of women in Africa and their native land, while Martina della Valle looks at the daily life of migrant women living far from their country of origin, as they try to preserve their original ties. On the other hand Marco Maria Zanin is on a quest for archetypes connecting rural civilizations which are only apparently distant, using sculpture and photography.
‘Correspondence’ originates from the long-distance dialogue between artist Martina della Valle and a group of women of different ages and nationalities at the Caritas relief center in the town of Pachino, Sicily. ‘The Ballad of Silent Seeds’ by Federica Landi centers around women from Burkina Faso, placing the limelight on people often ignored by other media. ‘Ritualia-Wounds/Slits’ by Marco Maria Zanin is a constant dialogue with anthropology, oriented at reinterpreting the semantics surrounding the connection to earth and to local traditions.
The way ‘power‘ represents and strengthens itself has to do with the fine line between what is visible and what is invisible. Fascinated by the complexity of this theme in relation to historical contexts and photographic images, Paolo Ciregia, Massimiliano Gatti and Zoe Paterniani present very different types of imagery. They start from different points of view, and yet they all benefit from the possibilities offered by the surgical look of the camera lens.
’40 Dictators’ by Paolo Ciregia is the result of scanning statues and half busts representing some of the most important dictators of the 20th and 21st centuries. Massimiliano Gatti with ‘Cloud’ juxtaposes archeological photographic images to shots of what might look like clouds, but actually turn out to be pillars of smoke emerging from an explosion. In ‘Jordan General Elections’ Zoe Paterniani collects a series of images shot during the parliamentary elections in Jordan in 2016. The ghostly rooms of the old parliament building, filled with historical institutional images, are counterposed to a single shot taken during that electoral campaign.
The project ‘Eyes on Tomorrow’ is scheduled to continue in 2022 with exhibitions opening at the Institutes of Addis Ababa, Algiers, Barcelona, Dublin, Melbourne, Moscow, Munich and Valletta.
More information on: iicmontevideo.esteri.it, iicnewdelhi.esteri.it and iicmessico.esteri.it