Three different exhibition proposals that try to interpret the essence of today's photography in a logic that moves towards the overcoming of genres and transversality to House of the Tre Oci in Venice from the 07 February to the 12 April 2015.
The exhibition is set up on different floors, on the ground floor of the Casa, Sixty portraits, between black and white and color, of personalities of Italian culture from 24 to 104 years old. Between empty and full. Between silences and gasps. Toni Servillo, Dario Fo, Bernardo Bertolucci, Peppe Barra, Claudia Gerini, Margherita Hack, Gillo Dorfles, Valerio Mastandrea, Luciana Savignano… These are just some of the characters who live
this path. And to be a character, there must be a camera lens to look at and a special eye that looks into the viewfinder, that of Francesco Maria Colombo.
We find ourselves looking at these portraits to remain deeply fascinated by them. For Francesco Maria Colombo, photographing is almost reading thoughts, so strong is the ability to grasp the intimacy of the subjects represented.
In fact, when the empathy between the author and his subject manifests itself in photography, the latter acquires greater expressiveness and its impact on external gazes resolves itself into an invitation to imagine and think about the reasons for the shot.
Observing the photographs of Francesco Maria Colombo leads us to this. Each portrait of him appears as a meditated gesture that corresponds to a moment of inattention of the subject, who allowed himself to be portrayed almost by mistake. And it is precisely within that error, within the yielding of the subject, that the center of interest of the images can be grasped. Their almost dramatic look, certainly unique and distinctive. Image after image, all doubts disappear (and even smiles become rare) and it is possible to notice a twofold design level on the part of whoever took these photographs.
The first has to do with the shy and reserved poses of the subjects who in this gallery of portraits express themselves in the places to which they belong. The second, on the other hand, is linked to a subtle and constant search for the photographic ideal by the author.
In the light of these levels of reading, each corresponding to the point of view of the photographer and the subject, Francesco Maria Colombo's images seem to reveal the final act of a research that follows, explores and ferrets out his subject up to the moment in which he chooses to open to the camera lens. In this sense, each portrait in the sequence seems to reveal a secret. Every mouth is about to say something. And we often ask ourselves: what happened between those two?
Francesco Maria Colombo's photographs appear as the result of a path of knowledge that explores the cultural, scientific and research universe through the art of the portrait. The subjects are treated within the unitary frame of a world so attractive as to arouse interest in every point, face or environment. They are actors, philosophers, musicians, writers and
scientists, all caught in their own context, free to choose the environments and attributes of their representation. For them the scene repeats itself each time with a different input, albeit always dictated by the author's intention to fully understand the chosen subject.
So even the most shy and reticent characters to the camera lens surrender to it, and express themselves in the most authentic poses. In those moments, as rare as they are fleeting, the road by which the photographer can realize his dream slowly begins to take shape. From then on it will be easier for him to reach
that ideal of representation that he keeps deep down in his gaze and in his heart.
In the halls of the main floor, the exhibition: Venetian galleries and photography.
As part of the exhibition, the Casa dei Tre Oci has chosen to host 6 Venetian galleries (Bugno Art Gallery, Ikona Gallery, La Salizada Gallery, Giorgio Mastinu Fine Art, Michela Rizzo Gallery, Upp Gallery,
who have always worked in the field of photography.
Deepening the knowledge, study and enhancement of photographic culture in a territory, such as that of Venice, closely linked to photography for historical reasons, is one of the main objectives of the Casa dei Tre Oci. The interaction with the territory has found a natural outlet in the comparison with the Venetian galleries dedicated to the sector. The result is
a variegated mirror, from which many ideas for reflection originate.
On the second floor, the exhibition program of the La Gondola Photographic Circle will be divided into three sections.
The remainder of the day, taking up the title of a successful film by James Ivory, is the theme that has seen 31 Club members reflect this year. There are two main research areas.
The first, and perhaps the most important, concerns the personal memory formed not by the salient events of a life but by the small details, by the marginal particulars, by the reverberations of banal actions which, as a result of the photographic transfiguration, take on another value, symbolic and open to more meanings.
It's not about recording the visual diary of a day (as the title might suggest) but giving substance to details of one's life, whether recent or distant.
A sort of intimate, profound evocation of which the spectator can participate. Another possible reading is the paraphrase of the lability of living and the absence of authentic reference values in contemporary society; we take into consideration the human artefacts whose disintegration we want to grasp, the degradation they undergo as a result of use, the action of time and their subsequent abandonment which often gives rise to new evidence full of unexpected meanings.
But not only; the anthropization of the territory, the unstoppable advance of human settlements temporarily or permanently modify situations and environments considered immutable for a long time.
Over the years, the Fondazione di Venezia has acquired various photographic archives and funds, allowing them to be used and generally promoting the diffusion of photographic culture in Italy, especially in Venice where it has opened the Casa dei Tre Oci to the public. Here photography has found its home: with exhibitions, workshops, seminars, workshops, conferences, and important monographic exhibitions of the great masters of the international scene.
The Tre Oci project is developed in collaboration with Civita Tre Venezie and with the support of Veneto Banca and Grafica Veneta.
