In the framework of the outdoor exhibition Eyes on Tomorrow. Giovane Fotografia Italiana nel Mondo, we are happy to invite to an art talk which will address the concept of landscape and its generational representation. Italy has become known through the avant-garde images manifestos of Luigi Ghirri and Letizia Battaglia, among others, who built a politicized image of a country internationally. A new generation questions their practice with a less realistic statement of social, technological, and ecological collapse but instead seeks new visual horizons in different territorial and technological roots. Through their ongoing practices, we will discuss how photography is reimagined with new critical voices from Italy and Norway.
Antonio Cataldo, Artistic Director of Fotogalleriet will lead the talk with the two young Italian photographers participating at the project Eyes on Tomorrow, Luca Marianaccio and Jacopo Valentini, together with the Norwegian photographer Terje Abusdal.
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Eyes on Tomorrow. Giovane Fotografia Italiana nel Mondo is an original project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, aiming at the international promotion of the most interesting artistic researches taking place in the Italian art scene. Eyes on Tomorrow. presents a selection of three artists for each of the fourteen themes: Heritage, Identity, Power, Roots, Stories, Nomadic Life, Secrets, Youth, Dreams, Enlightenment, Horizons, Daily Life, Correspondences, Perspectives.
The project is characterized by an innovative and original exhibition format that involves the use of modular, three-dimensional wooden structures that artists customize according to personal concepts
About the exhibition in Oslo:
Enlightenment
How can we outline a space? How can we describe a landscape? How can we imagine the future? These are some of the questions raised in the projects by Fabrizio Albertini, Luca Marianaccio and Jacopo Valentini. Through innuendo, memory and evocation, what arises is a collection of suspended images about the desire to redraw our personal and collective boundaries when perceiving the world.
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About the artists and participants:
Luca Marianaccio
(Agnone, IT, 1986)
Luca Marianaccio is an artist who also expresses himself through photography. Winner of the XVIII Aldo Nascimben Prize in Treviso, the First Giovanni Gargiolli National Photographic Prize in Fivizzano, the REFOCUS 2 National Competition curated by MUFOCO, Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Triennale Milano, the TIP Emerging Talent Competition in London and the New Post Photography Prize of the MIA Fair in Milan.
His book Spin-off won awards at the XIV Marco Bastianelli Award in Rome and at the Unveil’d Photobook Award in London. His works have been exhibited in various solo exhibitions and photography festivals and acquired from public and private collections. Lives and works in Grottaglie.
Jacopo Valentini
(Modena, IT, 1990)
In 2017 he obtained two degrees from two universities: IUAV in Venice (cum laude) and the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. In the same year he won the 101st Collective Young Artists at the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. In 2019 he is selected for Giovane Fotografia Italiana #07 and wins the Nocivelli Prize. In 2020, he is the winner of the Refocus call, launched by MiC in collaboration with the Triennale di Milano and MUfoco. He was selected for the Cantica21 project, organized by Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. He exhibits at Parma Capitale della Cultura Italiana 2021.
He lives between Modena and Milan.
Terje Abusdal (1978) is a visual artist with education from KMD Art Academy in Bergen, La Cambre in Brussels and the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Abusdal works with photography and sound installations where he explores what it means to belong. His projects have won several prizes, among others Leica Oscar Barnack Award and Fotogalleriets Nordic Dummy Award. He has published the books Radius 500 Meters (2015) and Hope Blinds Reason (2019) with Journal in Sweden, as well as Slash & Burn (2018) with Kehrer Verlag in Germany. His latest publication, Hope Blinds Reason, was the winner of Norway’s Most Beautiful Book in 2020. Terje has had a number of exhibitions nationally and internationally, including Bergen Kunsthall, NŌUA and Mattatoio di Roma.
Antonio Cataldo holds a Ph.D. in Curatorial Studies. Since August 2018, Cataldo has served as the Artistic Director of Fotogalleriet, an independent and publicly-funded institution, the oldest kunsthalle for photography in the Nordic region. Through exhibitions, discourse, and research for several internationally reputed organizations, Cataldo has actively challenged institutional models, their governing structures, and the representational social role of images. Cataldo studied with philosopher Giorgio Agamben in Venice, Italy, obtaining his MA in 2006. Cataldo sits on the boards of Kunsthalles in Norway and the Sandefjord Kunstforening Art Award jury.