campania theater festival
twelve o’clock, June 12, 2021 – 10:23 am
Eight author’s glimpses in the convent of San Domenico Maggiore from today at 5pm
of Mirella Armiero
Eight looks, eight narrations in images. Different research objects but a single research method, under the guidance of Antonio Biasiucci. The authors of the third edition of the “Lab, for an irregular laboratory” recounted their own “epiphany”, creating portfolios that differ greatly in terms of both forms and contents. The exhibition of their works opens today at 5 pm in the Convent of San Domenico Maggiore, as part of the Campania Theater Festival directed by Ruggero Cappuccio. Paolo Covino, Alessandro Gattuso, Valeria Laureano, Laura Nemes-Jeles, Claire Power, Ilaria Sagaria, Giuseppe Vitale and Tommaso Vitiello are the protagonists of this third edition which presents, until 10 July, a total of over 150 photographic works.
The authors
The young authors tell their work at the Corriere del Mezzogiorno: they range from more intimate perspectives to more social ones. Paolo Covino, in the «Altari» series, focuses his lens on a secluded place in the house, the bedroom. Why? «The series», he explains, «stems from an entirely internal need to reconnect with the origins from which I come. The territory, Sannio and Irpinia, the people who live there, the elderly, guardians of a memory in decay, have always represented the impulse of my artistic research, obsessively re-proposed up to the finish of the bedroom. Entering their homes I was able to dig into the intimacy, beyond the obstacle of modesty and reach the deep heart of the house. I was greeted with grace and calmness, up to the living room and the kitchen, but my request to “invade” the room where you undress met reticence, fear, suspicion and hesitation, overcome with the creation of an empathic understanding ” .
shadow carousel
Teatro Festival, Biasiucci’s photographers on display
From the domestic microcosm to Alessandro Gattuso’s “Cosmos”, who through the lens compares himself with the person portrayed, focusing on the theme of gender and identity. «The bodies of the people portrayed», the author clarifies, «are taken in classic poses and transcend the stereotypes of the canons of beauty, thus becoming proud bearers of a new aesthetic sense. The body represents an identity space that is redefined and reconfigured through a complex process of self-construction. The cutting light and black and white aesthetically reinforce the dichotomous balance: masculine / feminine, light / shadow, strength / vulnerability. Nudity is understood not as a deprivation of clothes but as the revelation of one’s own nature ». The project by Valeria Laureano is entitled «Amalìa», which takes its cue from the news: «I was inspired by a true story, that of Leonarda Cianciulli, the soap maker from Correggio. Soon the story, leaving those events behind, drew from my personal imagination. A story is outlined between the macabre and the seductive that highlights the tangles of the human mind, its dark, primitive and wild side; a hidden and unknown place that reveals itself in its roughness and contradictions ». Dedicated to her sister, the «Grazia» cycle by Laura Nemes-Jeles. A project that lasted 13 years. «Grazia is the mirror of all of us. Already in her first years of life my sister became, for all of us, an existential measure. Everything revolves around her. She is autistic, this does not take away, but adds a sense of absolute purity. Grace loves music, movies, water, people, and to experience the most intense emotions. He can easily learn any melody or speech, and often seems to understand things before they happen. He does not know malice, hatred, envy ». At the center of Claire Power’s research is «La Montagna», ie Vesuvius: «I think there is no place where the illusion of human omnipotence is so fragile as on the slopes of the“ exterminator Vesevo ”. The potential catastrophe underlies the telluric life of its inhabitants, always on the verge of fading. They tame it as they can by calling it “A muntagna”. I followed the traces of an ancient agricultural history that is transmitted in Christ-pagan rituals, in blood and gestures, in the relationship between beings and the earth. It manifests itself in an almost tactile experience that recalls fatigue and care and brings us back to the body as inevitably linked and fully immersed in the material world. Among other things, the volcano is almost invisible in the images, it remains a constant but underground presence, silent but alive, hidden but lurking ». Ilaria Sagaria’s female bodies are part of the «Full of grace» series: «It’s a forgotten story or even never told. A story made of flesh, atonement, fears, whispers and torment. A material and pictorial light carves enigmatic figures, which try with impetus to escape from the darkness and at the same time to hide from the eyes of the world ». Giuseppe Vitale with «Apnea» shows a completely visionary work. «The origin is the pain of the loss of my father. “Apnea” is a job that brings me back to the womb and gives me the protection that only a muffled place can give. It is there that, in fact, I conduct the apnea dive, in an ancestral and otherworldly dimension in which I feel my heartbeat slow down. Photography is necessary for me to reach this place of the soul, through a path marked by the dichotomy of death-life, apnea-breath ». Finally Tommaso Vitiello in «Archèo» moves on the traces of a past domestic experience. «I explored the lives and homes of families, specifically their attics, cellars, warehouses and basements, those places where objects of a lifetime are stored, boxes and memories to be protected and preserved as if they were precious rarities. Healthcare places where, over time, these things are gently forgotten, left on the sidelines where they cannot be seen. The dust guards and protects objects and together with the light gives them new life. On each object touched, the imprint of a personal and universal history remains. In the chaos that dominates these spaces, I put my attention to the voids, where there was I looked for what is not there, where the objects themselves decide to stop. In short, it is a domestic archeology made up of stories asleep in their form ».
June 12, 2021 | 10:23
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