2002, foto-grafie

analog photography, black ink on tracing paper, digital scans, 16 elements, 10×15 cm (each), 61×91 cm (frame size), 2021/22.

2002, foto-grafie is now part of the Venice Pavilion at the Giardini of the Art Biennale 2022. It won first Prize at the Photography section of “Creators of our time” competition, organized by the Municipality of Venice.

The images date back to 2002: they record a day at the beach, as part of a family past, they’re about getting through a place that no longer exists (or lost in translation). The coast is the natural border where the land meets the sea. Designed by the erosive action of waves, tides and wind and the related sedimentation process, the beach is a place of transition, that changes gradually. It’s where the surge and wilderness of the water collide with the stillness of the ground.
The tracing paper, overlaid on the photos through the scanning process, works as a filter. Something else is added, hence needed, to this “superstructure”, something that comes from a place of discomfort: covering the body, obscuring and censoring it, or perhaps trying to enhance it starting from the shapes, highlighting the outlines. The last step is to literally make the ink explode: what’s left is an irreparably stained image.