Artist
Giaime Meloni
Giaime Meloni is a visual researcher with a PhD in Architecture, currently living between two islands: Île-de-France and Sardinia. The aim of his work is to explore the role of the photography as a sensible instrument to narrate the space complexity. His researches has been published in various publications (MAM Saint Etienne, INTRU). In 2017, he was shortlisted for Premio Graziadei with his long-term project Das Unheimiliche. He teaches photography as an instrument of the making of the architectural design between France and Italy.
My practice is conceived as an act capable of questioning the nature of places.
The images provide a tangible proof of my presence in the territory, in a certain way they documented it. However I would like to take distance compared to the documentation – and strictly documentary photography – in order to provide a more universal reflection on our relationship with the space.
The photographic action that I develop aims to questioning the restitution of ordinary space in search of a visual and spatial connection with the subject. The specific interest of this practice is to investigate, by theory and practice, the photographic instantaneity and the message that it carries.
The paradox of images is that they pretends to reproduce things which are only themselves. But this is only an illusion, a conviction that is a part of the magic contemplation. In fact, during the act of photographing, I realize that things denying their existence by the image.
What it remains frozen into the fragments is the (artificial) reflection of reality as an intention of my gaze.
Every photos prove that there is an implicit message exceeding the limits of the image itself. I accept that the message of the images can be corrupted / destroyed at any time by the viewer / reader.
Das Unheimliche
The concept of unheimlich, translated into english with the term uncanny, contains in its semantic complexity the same sense of impotence and disorientation that we feel when, visiting a place for the first time, we find ourselves in front of elements that seem familiar to us. This feeling triggers in us contrasting reactions like calm and fear. Recalling dreamlike situations in which reality and fiction are intertwined, the project is inspired by the aesthetic concept, that Sigmund Freud explored in the 1919 essay “Das unheimliche”. When the labyrinthine space of the children’s Colony in the former Eni village at Corte di Cadore is investigated through the lens of this concept, we question the restless familiarity of this place: “Have I been here before?”.
In the past two years, Giaime Meloni has spent intense and cyclical periods within the children’s Colony. Every visit was a renewed opportunity to establish a contact with the place, between visual memory and formal obsessions.
Unheimlich is finally a metaphor of the condition of contemporary living. This experience emphasizes the human need to construct a domestic dimension within a generic space, working on the intangible but palpable register of the unconscious. The search for the territorial familiarity also includes in an antithetic way its negation, of which the unheumlich is the definition.
The incessant repetition of some forms, subjects and colours within the sequence of images evokes the search for points of references that are capable of generating a sense of familiarity with the place.
Domenico Camarda (La Spezia, 1990) is an Italian artist.
http://www.domenicocamarda.com
Born in La Spezia in 1990, after his bachelor’s degree in Communication at the University of Bologna, he attended an MA in Photography and Visual Design at NABA/Forma in Milan. In the autumn of 2014 he worked at Pierre Von Kleist Editions, and Pedro Alfacinha Gallery, both based in Lisbon. During this experience he learned and deepen his interest in author photography and art publishing.
In 2015, he lived and worked in London for Amelia Troubridge, as assistant photographer, curating the editing and the layout of her last publications. He currently lives in Turin where, after having collaborated for MeMo Mag, he works as freelancer.
Camarda’s artistic practice focuses on and explores themes such as the construction of identity, and collective phenomena that affect and define the lives of each single individual. Creating a series of dreamlike and suggestive images, he wants to ask questions and trigger reflections, rather than giving simple answers.
Francesca Catastini (Lucca,1982) is an Italian artist.
She holds an MA in Photography and Visual Design from the New Academy for Fine Arts in Milan.
Her work is mainly about combining: images with images, texts, or other objects, in a no-ladder like interaction, aiming at transcending the idea of separation, in order to experience different levels of analogies. People are generally attracted by the challenge of interpreting the evidence, but our understanding of the pure origin of images is often vague exactly as ambiguous is the knowledge we have about the derivation of many words. What fascinates Catastini the most is exactly this exercise of the mind, which aims at “filling a gap”, drawing from our culture, knowledge, and past experiences. She is attracted by the connection between optical and apical perception. Unlike touch, vision often implies a sort of distance and it represents the sense which is more suitable for abstracting things. In 2016 her book "The Modern Spirit Is Vivisective” won the ViennaPhotoBookAward. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including Plat(t)form 2017, Fotomuseum Winterthur; Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia and other institutions.
Paolo Ciregia (1987, Italy) is an Italian artist.
After experience as a reporter at the forefront of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in the last five years his artistic research has been focused on Ukraine context, manipulating and reworking his personal archive in a new way. Investigating and deconstructing both archives symbols and language, Ciregia aims to reveal the atrocities behind the war, destroying the propaganda patina through installations and sculptures. His work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Among the major prizes are Winner of Talent FOAM Amsterdam 2016, Winner of “LOOP, Giovane Fotografia Italiana”, Festival Fotografia Europea 2017, “Honorable jury Mention” at Premio Francesco Fabbri 2016, TU35 at the Museo Pecci in Prato 2017, Winner of Leica Talent 2012
Irene Fenara (Bologna, 1990) is an Italian artist.
https://irenefenara.squarespace.com/
Her research focuses on the way of seeing and practicing observation on images. She reflects on linguistic devices and she uses optical and electronic instruments of various kinds, from Polaroid to surveillance cameras, often in an improper manner and transgressing their basic function. It becomes an instrument for observing the world, in the search for a slight poetic sense. The act of vision is the central element of her work that declines in her latest research on optical devices, often used as instruments of control, bringing attention to the always reversible overturning between who observes and who is observed. Her work has been exhibited in art galleries and public institutions, such as Fondazione Prada Osservatorio (2016), Fondazione Fotografia Modena (2017), P420 (2017), MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna (2018), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (2018), Fondazione Francesco Fabbri (2018) e Kunst Merano Arte (2019).
Giaime Meloni (Cagliari, 1984) is an Italian artist.
He is a visual researcher with a PhD in Architecture, currently living between two islands: Ile-de-France and Sardinia. The aim of his work is to explore the role of photography as a sensible instrument to narrate the space complexity. His research has been published in various publications (MAM Saint Etienne, INTRU). Giaime Meloni takes part in several International Conferences (CCA, FAUP), and also participate in national and international exhibition (Ritmo Indipendente, Pavillon de l'Arsenal). In 2017 he was shortlisted for Premio Graziadei with his long-term project Das Unheimiliche. He teaches photography as an instrument of the making of the architectural design between France and Italy. Her practice conceives an act capable of questioning the complex nature of places.
Giangavino Pazzola (Sassari, 1981) is Associate Curator at CAMERA - Italian Center for Photography