The exhibition, curated by Laura Serani, is organized and promoted by Stars Foundation, with the collaboration of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, on the occasion of Ulissi Viaggio nelle Odissee and in conjunction with the show Odyssey by Bob Wilson, and with the patronage of the Lombardy Region, the Province of Milan and the Municipality of Milan.
The photographic and multimedia project tells the journey that the artist made by retracing the stages of Ulysses narrated in Homer's Odyssey, through 90 images, 10 videos and 1 short film, all made only with the help of two iPhones.
De Luigi, one of the most respected international photographers, winner of numerous awards including 4 World Press Photo, connects the past and the present of our civilization: on the one hand the Odyssey, the oldest testimony of our cultural heritage, on the 'another most innovative media.
iDyssey is a contemporary Odyssey created between March and May 2012 using all possible means of transport to cross the Mediterranean in 12 stages, from Troy to Ithaca, from Turkey to Tunisia, Italy and Greece.
The photographic works, presented in an evocative setting, are accompanied by 10 videos, in which characters met along the way read and interpret, in their original language, extracts from the Homeric masterpiece and black and white videos, 30 seconds each, which they represent tableaux vivants of various situations.
iDyssey is an opportunity to tell, with the contemporaneity and the new semantic potential of the smartphone, places linked together by ancient myths and legends, to describe countries, people and cultures of the three shores of a sea that represents an ideal bridge between tradition and civilizations of Asia, Africa and Europe.
Furthermore, De Luigi's spirit as a great reporter could not avoid documenting the rapidly changing realities of the nations crossed. Here then is the testimony of the crisis in Greece, which is also that of a certain European identity, or the profound aspirations of Tunisia after the Arab spring, or again the migratory flows along the Evros river and the struggle between secularism and religious radicalism that lives in Turkey a very acute phase; without forgetting southern Italy, always hovering between illegality and the desire for change.
In collaboration with the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, on Friday 19 April, at 17.30 pm, at the Piccolo Teatro in via Rovello 2, the iDyssey project will be presented as part of the Ulissi Viaggio nelle Odissee program and in conjunction with the show "Odyssey" by Bob Wilson, and will animate a debate on the theme of contemporary Odysseys, European identity, the new Ulysses.
Biographical notes
Stefano De Luigi (Cologne, 1964) has been a professional photographer since 1988. He lived in Paris from 1989 to 1996 where he worked for the Grand Louvre Museum. In 1998 he made a work on the universe of fashion in France and Italy: "Celebrities". In 1999, in collaboration with Médicins Sans Frontières, he illustrated the conditions of prisoners suffering from tuberculosis in central Siberian prisons. In these years he exhibited in group shows: Edinburgh (1988), Paris (1993) Arles (1996) and solo shows: Braga (2001) and Savignano (2002). In 2000 he received the 'Honorable Mention' of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and his work was screened in Arles. In the same year he realizes the "Pornoland" project, a photographic journey on the sets of pornography in the world. In 2004 "Pornoland" became a book with text by Martin Amis, published in the United States and United Kingdom (Thames and Hudson), Germany (Knessebeck), France (La Martinière) and Italy (Contrasto). The book "Pornoland" received the Marco Bastianelli award in 2005. “Pornoland” is exhibited at the REA gallery (France, 2004), at the Santa Cecilia gallery (Italy, 2005), at the Trans-Photographic Festival (France, 2007).
From 2003 to 2006, in collaboration with CBM Italia, he produced the project "Blindness" on the condition of blindness in the world. This work, later entitled “Blanco”, received the patronage of WHO Vision 2020 and won the WESmith Felloship Grant, in 2007. It was exhibited in Rome (10B Gallery), in New York (VII Gallery 2010) at MART Museum of Modern Art in Rovereto (2011) and in Athens ( Fotofestival 2012 ).
In 2006 Stefano De Luigi embarked on the "Cinema Mundi" project which tells the world of alternative cinema to the commercial one of Hollywood. The first stops were made in China, Russia, Iran, Argentina, followed by the others in Nigeria, South Korea and India. Transformed into a 7-minute short film, "Cinema Mundi" was screened at the Locarno Film Festival on August 4, 2007 and published in over 20 international magazines.
Stefano De Luigi has won four World Press Photos in different categories. (1998-2007-2010-2011). In 2009 he won the Moving Walls of the Soros foundation and his work was exhibited in New York and Washington. In 2010 he won the Days Japan International Photojournalism Award and the Getty Grant for Editorial Photography. Also in 2010 he published his book "Blanco" (ed. Trolleybooks 2010). In 2011 “Blanco” won the POYi Best Photography Book Award. In 2013 he won the Days Japan (Special Jury Prize) and the Prix du festival de St-Brieuc. With two new photographic projects.
Stefano De Luigi's reports are published by the most important international magazines, in particular: Stern, Paris Match, Le Monde 2, Time, New Yorker, EyeMazing, Geo, D di Repubblica, L'Espresso, Vanity Fair, Internazionale.
Stefano De Luigi has been part of the VII agency since 2008 and lives in Milan.
Milan, Stelline Foundation – Gallery I (Corso Magenta 61)
14 April - 26 May 2013
Inauguration: Saturday 13 April, from 17pm
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 10 – 20 (closed on Monday)
Free entry
Website: www.stelline.it
Infoline: +39.02.45462.411
