SPAZIO FONTANELLA PRESENT SIILK GALLERY
Spazio Fontanella alongside Siilk Gallery will host an exhibition showcasing an anthology of photography and moving image by a select group of Italian artists – Caimi Piccinni, Niccolò Berretta, Vincenzo Forino, Gian Marco Sanna & Federico Russo. Curated by Daniel Peace & Nicole Oike.
The works will be set in the gallery space (Spazio Fontanella) of the High Renaissance palace “Palazzo Gaddi Niccolini Strozzi,” in Rome (Via del Banco di Santo Sprito). The iconic palace was commissioned by the Florentine noblemen Luigi Taddeo Gaddi in 1528. Michelangelo lived there while constructing the St.Peters dome inside the Vatican.
The exhibition will consist of works in different photographic and video formats by each Italian artist whose techniques, aesthetic, style and message all differ from one another but share a common passion in creating beautiful and meaningful imagery, documenting moments in time and creating their own personal dialogues and fragments of history. The exhibition will mix contemporary ideas and imagery against the classic and historical backdrop of Palazzo Gaddi Niccolini Strozzi at Spazio Fontanella.
Opening / Preview – November 12th @ 6pm and running until 19th November. Artists / Photographers:
– Caimi Piccinni
Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni collaborate since 2013 for documentary and personal photography projects. They focus on contemporary subjects, with a particular attention on the human aspects of each story. Their works are regularly featured in the press and media worldwide: The Guardian, Die Zeit, Politico, Le Monde, L’Espresso, Internazionale, Wired, GQ, Newsweek, The Sunday Times and many others.
They are recipients of several awards such as the 2021 Planches Contact, the ISPA Award for best photo story, The Sistema Festival “Reset” Award, the 2020 PHmuseum Of Humanity Grant in the solo show category, the 2019 Sony World Photography Award in the category “Discovery”, the 2018 Istanbul Photo Book Award, the 2016 Gomma Grant for best B&W documentary work. They are exhibited throughout Europe and Asia in galleries and festivals, such as the Biennale Für Aktuelle Fotografie, Delhi Photo Festival, Lumix Festival, Fotoleggendo, Phest, Voies Off.
So far they published six books, with “Fastidiosa” (for Overlapse) and “En Présence De L’Absence” (for Éditions Bessard) being the most recent. Books also include the trilogy on cities in transition comprising “Güle Güle” about Istanbul, “Forcella” focused on Naples and “RHOME”, which was shortlisted at PHotoESPANA Best Photobook of the Year 2019. “Güle Güle” received a special mention at Kassel Dummy Book Award 2019 and was finalist at Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award in Arles and was shortlisted at Arles Author Book Award 2020 and Prix Nadar 2020.
PRESENCE / ABSENCE
The photographic series presented in the exhibition focuses on the inseparable bond between presence and absence, investigating the links between nature and man. Presence/Absence is constructed according to the idea of a personal, fluid, almost literary narration, composed of images that, while having a life of their own, are episodes/points in an organic and emotional story. An alchemy of action/reaction between Caimi&Piccinni’s photographic vision and a unique territory, the North Coast of France, which immediately becomes symbolic, sublime and evocative. In the images we find the interweaving of human life in its present and past history with that of nature, plants, animals, the sea and the tides.
Indissoluble worlds are generated that influence each other, that coexist, in a sort of gravitational system that unites empty and indefinable spaces with the intimacy of the people who inhabit them. Presence and absence overlap and their interplay, their interaction, transports us into the possible worlds triggered by the photographic narrative. The presence of the incomparable light of ocean spaces, as well as its absence, the night and the mists of the countryside, the portraits of women and men on which nature leaves its mark. Suspended and changing atmospheres, capable of creating an enigmatic world that poses questions without giving certain answers, renewing the tension of the unknown.
@caimipiccinni
www.caimipiccinni.com
– Niccolò Berretta
Niccolò Berretta is a photographer and photography director. He is the curator of several documentaries, music videos and short films, and has worked with several luxury brands. He has been taking photographs in and around Termini Station since 2009.
Influenced by August Sander and Diane Arbus, Niccolò Berretta has photographed so many people that he now has hundreds of portraits, indirectly documenting the societal and architectural changes of a continuously evolving metropolis. Every person, depicted in the same pose throughout the book, has the narrative power to tell their story and the story of a generation, representing themselves and at the same time representing the place and the time they belong to. Their status as passers-by reflects our status as a reader, carrying us into a world of images we will always be part of.
@niccoloberretta @stazionetermini
– Vincenzo Forino
Vincenzo Forino is a photographer from Italy and based in Berlin for the last five years.
Film photography opened Vincenzo up to an entire new world some years ago. Since then, it has been an escalation of experimentation with new mediums and new techniques in order to capture his dark, grainy, distorted and often dream like black and white works.
An often occurring technique Vincenzo uses is negative manipulations, burning and distorting instant prints, controversial developing processes, and cyanotypes prints.
He believes in the skill of photography as a vital part of the process which makes up the final resulting images.
Experimenting in photography is a never-ending journey in which one can only learn and discover unknown possibilities by embracing the unexpected.
@vincenzofrno
– Gian Marco Sanna
Gian Marco Sanna (Rome, 1993) Curator Discarded Magazine Co-founder of L.I.S.A.
From 2012 to 2015 he has studied at the Roman School of Photography in Rome, where he has acquired the techniques from analogue to digital photography. In 2015 he started to attend the D.O.O.R. Academy, experimenting with documentary photography. From 2015 to 2017 he has worked in the area of Malagrotta in Rome, where the biggest dump in Europe is located. In 2016 he found L.I.S.A. collective.
In 2017 the publishing house Urbanautica printed his first book Malagrotta, which was presented during the Paris Photo at Mi Galerie in Paris and at Fotofever in 2019. The same project was also exhibited in Rome at 001 Gallery, during the Roman photographic walks, an event organized by MIBACT, at the Gallery Lombardi Arte in Siena, at the RiBella Art gallery in Viterbo during Caffeina Event and at Officine fotografiche in Milan.
Malagrotta project was also the winner of the Bi foto Prize, which is held every year in Sardinia, and the finalist of Premio Marco Pesaresi 2018, Premio Voglino 2018 and of Emerging Talents Contest in 2018.
In September 2019 he published “AGARTHI” with the publisher Penisola Edizioni his second work about Lake Bolsena on which he had worked on for the past five years. The project had already been exhibited at Grenze Arsenali Fotografici Festival 2019 in Verona, at Cascina Farsetti Art in Rome, at Parallel Voices 2020 in Greece and at the Gibellina PhotoRoad in Sicily.
Two of Gian Marco Sanna’s prints have been selected to become part of the collection of Fondazione Orestiadi in Gibellina. AGARTHI won the Parallel Voices 2020 at Photometria Festival in Greece.
Gian Marco has worked on many assignments for many magazines of documentary photography, including Youthies magazine and SUQ magazine.
@gian_marco_sanna www.gianmarcosanna.com
– Federico Russo
Originally starting out as a musician (bassist) in Rome, Federico began producing electronic and ambient music. This led him onto working as a sound designer, mainly for video games and animation. Following this period he decided to delve into the world visual arts, specifically new media and digital art.
Federico Russo works as a motion designer for various Milan based studios such as Limitea0 and Karmachina. He has presented works and installations at Sonar + D and Ars Electronica in collaboration with Alessandro Capozzo.
His work focuses on the connection between collective human memory and the realm of Artificial Intelligence.
@giannignagni www.multimediaandstuff.com
– Curated by Daniel Peace & Nicole Oike
Daniel Peace is a photographer, curator, and the founder of SIILK gallery. Originally from Newcastle, U.K.
His debut exhibitions took place at Hoxton Gallery (UK) and the Royal academy of Art (UK). Since 2015, he has exhibited in and curated throughout North America and Europe.
He has photographed designers at Berlin, Paris, and Mexico City Fashion Weeks, as well as shooting editorials and look books
for designers around the globe. His work has been featured in Féroce, Notion, Noctis, Dazed, i-D, Kaltblut, Autré, Vice, Spindle, Crom, Vogue Britain, and many more.
After living in London, Berlin, and Mexico City, he moved to Athens, Greece in 2019 to open SIILK gallery, with the aim of promoting provocative, contemporary, independent visual artists whom are under-represented within the traditional system.
@danielpeace www.siilkgallery.com
Nicole Oike is a freelance Art Director and Visual Researcher currently based in Milan, Italy.
After a graduation in Art Direction & Styling and further Contemporary Art studies she deepened her inclination for Image
Archiving and Aesthetic Curation.
She works closely with artists, fashion brands and record labels as an Image Consultant and Trend Forecaster.
Nicole has a strong interest in photography, experimental cinema and video installation, Japanese aesthetic, sound art and performance art, specifically in the Post-Organic Body Art field, as well as being part of a Contemporary Dance company.
@lashamenna___
