A FOCUS ON ITALIAN HERITAGE - Spazio Nuovo
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
A FOCUS ON ITALIAN HERITAGE
A FOCUS ON ITALIAN HERITAGE
CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY
RICCARDO AJOSSA, CAMILLA BORGHESE, OLIVIER ROLLER
KATARA CULTURAL VILLAGE – DOHA, QATAR
JANUARY 15TH-30TH, 2019
Embassy of Italy in Doha
I am delighted to open the Embassy’s cultural program in Qatar for the year 2019 with the very
special photographic exhibition “A Focus on Italian Heritage", curated by Italian contemporary
art gallery Spazio Nuovo - Roma and showcased in the art-friendly and lively context of the
Katara Cultural Village.
"A Focus on Italian Heritage" is a unique collection of art pictures, especially created and
made for the purpose of this exhibition in Doha by a group of three artists. Each art piece is
a visual and emotional journey through the renowned Italian heritage of classical architecture
and arts which, over the centuries, has made and still makes Italy a great source of inspiration
and beauty highly admired around the world.
The perspective though is unusual: the artists have focused the lens of their cameras on
specific details or elements of architectures, sculpture and paintings, inviting visitors to engage
in imagining the broader picture and the full context to which such details and elements
belong. Their approach embodies what I believe to be the great contribution of contemporary
photography to cultural diplomacy: it captures moments but also helps defining the past,
H.E. Pasquale Salzano, building the present and shaping our vision for the future and, by doing so, is a powerful tool
Ambassador of Italy to share cultural heritage and cultures, as well as people’s feelings and ideas.
This is also the common vision shared by Italy and Qatar. Both our countries are committed to preserve, promote
and make their respective cultural heritage as accessible as possible, so to encourage the inclusive development and
dialogue between communities and generations, as it is also effectively highlighted in the "Qatar National Vision
2030".
What makes me particularly proud - along with the growing trade and investment figures between Italy and Qatar is
that the increasing people-to-people contacts and the more intense cultural exchanges have further tied the bonds
of friendship between our countries. The exhibition “A Focus on Italian Heritage” falls within this broader context of
fruitful exchange and dialogue where I believe our ambitions, expectations and ideas can have no boundaries.
I hope that all our friends here in Qatar will enjoy the exhibition and I wish to all the visitors an engaging journey
through our unique and beloved Italian heritage!
Pasquale Salzano, Ambassador of Italy to Qatar
A FOCUS ON ITALIAN HERITAGE The dictum nihil novi sub sole (“there is nothing new under the sun”) meaning whatever can be produced today has already been discovered has been adopted by several historic cultures over many centuries. Thanks to this conviction, we are made aware of how much Italian Renaissance-Humanism owes its identity in its entirety to the rediscovery of the immense cultural value of the Greco-Roman world. With the Renaissance and especially due to the formalization and mastery of perspective, painting takes on a predominant role within the realm of artistic expression. Each leading form of technical innovation marks the period in which it first flourished, and today, we may now reasonably assign this influential leading role to photography. The artists assembled together for the first time in this exhibition share the common bound of devotion to the photographic medium and to the sublime Greco-Roman world as a subject of personal interest. However, what links their compositions visually is an adeptness at highlighting and unveiling certain key elements of a specific work of art of ancient times, as if underlining an intrinsic meaning that eludes comprehension at a first glance. Additionally, these three artists’ shared sense of composition, better known as focus in the world of photography, reflects their intrinsic abilities to simultaneously archive and innovate. What distinguishes the work of Olivier Roller, Camilla Borghese and Riccardo Ajossa, are their artistic subjects, respectively sculpture, architecture and painting. Roller investigates the anatomic details of Classical Roman statues in order to reveal the most intimate and human aspects of projections of power, while Borghese concentrates on the wondrous perspective and the divine proportions of the monumental architecture of ancient Rome, and Ajossa re-examines fragments of Italian Renaissance paintings, mirroring them in the soft undulations of the sea to amplify and highlight their chromatic allure. Central to their work is the mythic world, seemingly fleeting, of ages long gone such as the Ancient Greek and Roman periods as having so deeply marked, and continuing to mark, our Western civilization.
The enlargement technique adopted by these artists is doubly revealing. On the one hand, we are invited to observe
the ability that marked the production of a world so seemingly primitive at first sight, but so very complex in its
development. On the other hand, we become aware of how much we owe our way of life, our identity and our
progress to our predecessors.
From the adept use of zoom as an analytical technique, to other forms of enlargement more conceptual in nature,
each artist reveals how much Italy and the Western world in general remain rooted in the high degree of civilization
achieved by our forebears, thus shaping “our” present.
Guillaume Maitre – Paulo Pérez Mouriz
OLIVIER ROLLER Olivier Roller (b. Strasbourg, 1971) lives and works in Paris. An invitation by the Louvre Museum to photograph some of their most important ancient Roman sculptures, resulted in a series of fascinating portraits rife with enigmatic allure. Roller continues to photograph iconic works that are housed in many of the great museum collections around the world including the Capitoline Museum, the National Roman Museum at Palazzo Altemps, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and the Musée Arles Antique, among others. Roller’s series of photographs, Figures of Power, reexamines the glory of ancient Rome with a critical eye, revealing the underlying fragility and vanity of power. Capturing the alchemical beauty of antiquity through the unflinching lens of contemporary photography, he uses light as a paintbrush in order to illuminate the medium of stone and to unearth the character and personality of the figures represented. SOLO SHOWS / GALLERIES - MUSEUMS ART FAIRS Musée du Louvre, Paris, France Arte Fiera Bologna Institut Culturel Franco-Japonais, Tokyo, Japan Fotofever, Paris & Brussels Musée des Moulages Université Lyon 2, France Photo Docks Lyon Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, France MIA Photo Fair, Milan Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France ArtVerona National Roman Museum at Palazzo Altemps, Rome, Italy Art Stage Singapore PRIVATE & PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France Musée Réattu, Arles, France Collection d’Art Contemporain da la ville de Lyon, France Collection Ruiz Picasso, Paris, France
Olivier Roller, Augusto di Meroe, 2014, chromogenic print, 100x150 cm, Edition of 8 + 2 A.P.
Divinità Femminile
2012
chromogenic print
140x92.5 cm
Edition of 8 + 2 A.P.
Lucius Verus
2008
chromogenic print
100x150 cm
Edition of 8 + 2 A.P.
Marcellus
2014
chromogenic print
100x150 cm
Edition of 8 + 2 A.P.
Inconnu I
2010
chromogenic print
140x92.5 cm
Edition of 8 + 2 A.P.
CAMILLA BORGHESE Work by photographer Camilla Borghese (b. Rome, 1977) largely centers around the concept of “monumental”. Concentrating on the rhythm, silence, and geometric cadence of Rome’s fabled buildings, her enigmatic composi- tions imbue static sights with overwhelming emotion. Using a large format camera with a long exposure to light, she reveals the magical, hidden language of architecture in striking detail. SOLO SHOWS / GALLERIES - MUSEUMS Galleria Plenum, Catania, “Osmosi” curated by Massimo Siragusa Kaunas Artists’ House, Lithuania, “Dialoghi Urbani” Castel dell’Ovo, Napoli , “Orizzonte Verticale” curated by Marina Guida Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid, “Bulgari y Roma” curated by Lucia Boscaini Spazio Nuovo, Roma, “Symmetria” curated by Guillaume Maitre and Paulo Pérez Mouriz Galleria Artesanterasmo, Milano, “Intervalli Geometrici” curated by Serena De Dominicis Città di Foligno, “Fuori Orario” curated by Gaia Toschi ART FAIRS Arte Fiera Bologna Fotofever Paris & Brussels MIA Photo Fair Milan & Singapore Art Verona PRIVATE & PUBLIC COLLECTIONS / COMMISSIONED WORK Ministero della Salute a Roma (Studio Transit) “Un ministero contemporaneo” curated by Giulio Salvioni Borgo “La Martella” (Matera), in collaboration with the Catholic University of Lueven L ’École française de Rome, Atelier Seraji Architects & Associates, Seste Engineering Pelanda dei suini – MACRO Testaccio, Rome. “A cultural center in the slaughterhouse of Rome” curated by Marco Mulazzani
Camilla Borghese, ⊥.14:04 . Rome, 2012, fine art giclée print on Hahnemühle cotton paper, 110x147 cm, Edition of 5 + 1 A.P.
⊥. 12:47 . ROME
2011
fine art giclée print
on Hahnemühle cotton paper
110x150 cm
Edition of 5 + 1 A.P.
⊥. 13:18 . ROME
2011
fine art giclée print
on Hahnemühle cotton paper
158x110 cm
Edition of 5 + 1 A.P.
⊥. 12:36 . ROME
2013
fine art giclée print
on Hahnemühle cotton paper
158x92 cm
Edition of 5 + 1 A.P.
⊥. 10:55 . ROME
2011
fine art giclée print
on Hahnemühle cotton paper
110x165 cm
Edition of 5 + 1 A.P.RICCARDO AJOSSA In Riccardo Ajossa’s (b. Rome, 1974) recent series of photographs, classical Italian masterpieces are reinvisioned as contemporary elegaic abstractions. Harnesing the luminous light that appears during tidal changes along the beaches of Puglia, Italy, Ajossa joins “earth and sky” marrying details from paintings by Renaissance masters including Antonello da Messina, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino and Caravaggio, with their reflections upon the water’s edge. SOLO SHOWS / GALLERIES - MUSEUMS Fondazione AICA, Milan, Italy Palazzo Albrizzi, Venice, Italy Tonnspur Museum, Vienna, Austria Quattro Canti, Collezione Bilotti, Palermo, Italy Museo Boncompagni-Ludovisi, Rome, Italy Espaço 321 Jacaranda, São Paulo, Brazil Phoenix Ancient City Museum, Fanghuang-Hunan, China #incerticonfini, Spazio Nuovo, Rome, Italy ART FAIRS ArtVerona MIA Photo Fair, Milan PRIVATE & PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Venice Biennale Archive Museum Benaky, Athens Korea Craft & Design, Seul Foundation Wien, MQ Installation Pontificio Consiglio della Cultura, Vatican City
Riccardo Ajossa, from Caravaggio, Reflections Series, 2018, chromogenic print, 100x150 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 A.P.
from Andrea del Sarto I fromParmigianino from Andrea del Sarto II
Reflections Series Reflections Series Reflections Series
2018 2018 2018
chromogenic print chromogenic print chromogenic print
90x60 cm 100x150 cm 90x60 cm
Edition of 5 + 2 A.P. Edition of 5 + 2 A.P. Edition of 5 + 2 A.P.
from Antonello da Messina I
Reflections Series
2018
chromogenic print
100x150 cm
Edition of 5 + 2 A.P.
from Antonello da Messina II
Reflections Series
2018
chromogenic print
100x150 cm
Edition of 5 + 2 A.P.GALLERIA SPAZIO NUOVO - ROME
Founded in 2010 by Guillaume Maitre & Paulo Pérez Mouriz, Spazio Nuovo is dedicated to the development of
Italian and international contemporary art in Rome with a special focus on photography. Poetical innovation and
academic rigour enable the gallery to further its bonds with collectors and institutions, by providing them with the
utmost creative insight and expertise with which to build their collections.
COLLABORATIONS
The Embassy of Italy, Doha
The French Academy in Rome – Villa Médicis
The National Roman Museum at Palazzo Altemps, Rome
The Embassy of France, Rome
The Embassy of Brazil, Rome
Spazio Nuovo wishes to thank the following:
the Italian Embassy in Doha without whose collaboration this exhibition would not have been possible,
the Ambassador of Italy in Doha for his commitment for the arts and strong belief in the dialogue between cultures,
the Katara Cultural Village for welcoming the emerging Italian art scene to Qatar.
For further information about the artworks please contact: Credits & copyrights
info@spazionuovo.net 2018 © Spazio Nuovo
Tel +39 3405199762 © Olivier Roller
+39 3409854675 © Camilla Borghese
© Riccardo AjossaEmbassy of Italy in Doha
You can also read
