From April 16th until the end of June, the Certosa Milano District will host the open-air exhibition ‘Living Certosa’ by the artist Robin Lopvet, curated by Kublaiklan collective. Promoted by RealStep, ‘Living Certosa’ presents a visual narrative of the area s evolution by depicting its local community in large format photographic collages. With an ironic gaze, Lopvet captures the redevelopment of the neighborhood and the collective commitment of its people in creating its rebirth.
From Piazza Cacciatori delle Alpi to Via Varesina, the installations will be visible to everyone in a shared space where art and urban surroundings coexist intertwined. Lopvet s photographs depict scenes of everyday life with deconstructed details that produce colorful, playful images. While ironic and amusing, these photographs also have an almost estranging effect: bodies meld together with the city and objects creating new, unexpected forms.
We spoke with the artist about his practice and this particular project.
Your photographs capture everyday life, distorted through collage, creating new playful
forms of human bodies and objects, while still maintaining a documentary style. What are the
reasons behind your choice of looking at reality with an ironic gaze?
I see the world as an absurd but really funny dystopia. I also deeply think that you can bring a
certain form of truth through fiction, like in novels. I usually photography what’s close to me, because I think if you are creative enough everything can be a source of inspiration, it’s all related to the gaze you have. About my medium itself, I wanted to create something in between of photography and something else. I see myself like a painter who uses fragments of reality instead of oil.
How did you interact with the community of Certosa, and how did you choose the subjects
portrayed in your work?
The choice of subjects was made in concert with Kublaiklan collective, the curator, and Milano Certosa District, that promoted the project. We wanted to show the whole diversity of the neighborhood. Scheduled meetings are a big part of the pictures but we also asked some people that we met randomly during the three days of shooting if they wanted to be part of the project. As I don t speak Italian the team of Kublaiklan was assisting me and talked to the people. Actually it was the first time for me to take picture of strangers. But I really enjoyed it and in the end I interacted with them alone even if we didn’t speak the same language. It was a really nice experience for me.
You mentioned your desire to transform the society of consumerism into a society of
recycling, which aligns with the concept of urban regeneration in the Milano Certosa District.
What was the initial idea that sparked this dialogue with the place and its architecture? What
served as your inspiration?
In some of my work I document the change between consumerism to recycling, upcycling etc
… I guess now as a society there is a higher consciousness of limitations of the earth’s resources and I love that became a really mainstream idea. The fact that a lot of new buildings of Certosa are made with recycled elements is for me how new things should be done, and I also love the dialogue between this new reality and the old structures that exists already for centuries. I felt the same with people: a new generation of territorial actors coexists with more traditional ones. I love this coexistence, this mix between two worlds.
The exhibition was curated by Kublaiklan, a collective dedicated to exploring photography and its various expressions through exhibitions, publications, and educational programs. Their goal is to enhance understanding of photography and promote visual literacy for all. We discussed with them about the curatorial aspect of ‘Living Certosa’.
You aim to make photography accessible to everyone. What aspects of the
photography world do you aim to make more inclusive, and how do you think this project
challenges those norms?
Kublaiklan’s work aims to speak to a wider, heterogeneous audience that is not necessarily
aware of and familiar with the communication mechanisms behind images. The ultimate goal
is precisely to give people practical tools with which to interpret, read and approach photography, acquiring an awareness that has a powerful influence on the way we think about ourselves and our role in the community. To answer your question, it is not a matter of intervening in
one field
of the photography world specifically, but in general on a kind of approach and philosophy that too often is geared towards excessive conceptualisation. We are for accessibility, i.e. making complicated concepts simple and understandable to anyone through experience. This often translates into the exhibition form, which by its nature requires a physical presence and therefore is a very powerful tool of interaction and engagement, but very often also into the development of workshops on visual education.
5. Working as a collective is not always the obvious choice, as we often associate artistic
work with individual personalities seemingly working alone. What are the biggest
achievements you have as a collective that, alone, you couldn
t even imagine obtaining?
Artistic practice is mistakenly regarded as a solitary process. While in some cases this is indeed the case, it is also true that the artist is always in a relationship with other people (think of curators, gallery owners, photo editors, but also printers and installers… these are all people thanks to whom and through whom the artist is able to communicate his or her work). Understanding this collective dimension of the artistic gesture is the basis of all our work. We strongly believe in the importance of collaboration as a process of exchange and enrichment. In each of our projects, the output is always the result of a confrontation between us and the artist. In a book that is emblematic for us, Photography and Collaboration , there is a sentence by Daniel Palmer : “A photograph is a product of an encounter and the start of a conversation ". Our philosophy is summed up in these very words. Together it is possible to do things that would not be possible alone, both logistically and intellectually. Each of us has a different background that brings different points of view to each project, and this of course allows us to achieve results that would not be conceivable by one mind alone. This is why we have been able to realise quite complex and multifaceted projects over the years and grow very quickly, more than we could do alone.
6. What do you hope to express with this exhibition, and how do you wish it will impact the
area and its community?
We hope that this project will help Certosa grow and develop its own strong identity. The people who make the district will become the protagonists of this exhibition, and will begin to conceive of themselves as a community. And even those who may have refused to be photographed (because there were some, of course) will begin to ask themselves some questions. Our aim is for photography to act as an activation device, to generate new relationships and experiences. For us, the result is important, but it is the process that makes the difference. What is generated along the way? And above all, what is generated afterwards? We conceive an exhibition as the beginning of something else, and not an event in itself. A means of transferring energy and knowledge to the people who visit it, but also one that has a tangible impact on the community. This is why we hope that even those who do not live in Certosa will visit the exhibition and discover a piece of Milan they may not have known. In light of this, working in the public space is crucial, because it is obviously a democratic place, accessible to all, and therefore deeply inclusive.
