A View from Above – Curatorial statement

Exhibitions, Texts
Installation view. Photo Nicola Morittu, courtesy Exposed Torino Foto Festival
Installation view. Photo Nicola Morittu, courtesy Exposed Torino Foto Festival

What follows is a short introduction I wrote for the booklet of the exhibition A View from Above (curated by Domenico Quaranta, Salvatore Vitale and Samuele Piazza at OGR Torino for EXPOSED. Torino Foto Festival). The show can be visited from May 2 to June 2, 2024. Italian version below More info

All These Fleeting Perfections

Exhibitions
All These Fleeting Perfections at Biblioteca Geisser, Turin. Photo Nicola Morittu

All These Fleeting Perfections is the group exhibition curated by Domenico Quaranta in the renovated spaces of the Biblioteca Geisser in Turin for EXPOSED. Torino Foto Festival, the new International Festival of Photography which will take place in Turin from 2 May to 5 June 2024 under the artistic direction of Menno Liauw and Salvatore Vitale.

The show is part of EXPOSED PRELUDE – a series of teaser events staged in collaboration with some of the main cultural institutions around the city of Turin on the occasion of the Turin Art Week; produced in collaboration with Artissima and with the active participation of a number of exhibitors, it can be visited from 27 October to 5 November 2023.

The event presentation is scheduled for the morning of Friday 3 November, from 10 am to 1 pm, although the exhibition will also be accessible over the days leading up to the event.

Press folder (Ita / Eng, courtesy Lara Facco)

A menu option. Notes on post-digital photography

Texts
Eva and Franco Mattes, The Others, 2011. Video, 137 min, dimension variable. Exhibition view, HEK, Basel 2012

I pick the phone, type the security code, aim straight to the “Camera” app. I raise it in front of me, and when the image I see on the screen convinces me, I press a virtual button. Three times. I open the gallery, choose the picture I prefer, select “Share” and “Instagram”. I frame the image, apply a filter, access the parameters and add some contrast. I proceed by “tagging” a person and adding a couple of #hashtags and a caption, then I share it. Instagram automatically posts my image on Facebook and Twitter. If I am lucky, a cloud of hearts and thumbs will rise around it, maybe a few comments. Maybe someone will download it and do something with it. Or maybe not. But, for sure, some obscure algorithm will use it to collect personal information about me or the person I tagged, and it will be more certain when it will suggest someone else to tag the same person in another image.