Mirabilia is part of the program of the side events taking place during the PhotoVogue Festival.
On September 14th Podbielski Contemporary inaugurated “Mirabilia”, a new project by Silvia Camporesi, accompanied by the eponymous book published by Corraini Edizioni, featuring texts by Franco Arminio, Maria Vittoria Baravelli, and a dialogue between Cesare Pomarici and the artist.
"For every place we seek in the world, there is one in Italy that we have not yet seen. It could be the Pietravairano theater, the unfinished Venosa, the sacred well of Santa Cristina, the cave of the Sibyl in Cumae, the red lake in Trentino, the megaliths of Argimusco, the Mirabilis pool, Pilato s lake, the abbeys of San Galgano and San Vito in Polignano, Capo Colonna and the Tavole Palatine in Metaponto, the rock engravings in Val Camonica, the necropolis of Pantalica, and the Malatestiana library in Cesena: Italy never ends." says Franco Arminio, as an introduction to Camporesi s work.
The artist spent five years, from 2017 to 2023, travelling through Italy looking for bizzarre buildings and natural or artificial oddities. The result is a visual journey of studies, documentation, itineraries, and plans. A hundred of photographs were selected for this project, creating an harmonious collection of places immersed in disorder, still retaining an aura of elegance and composure.
Camporesi s collection works through juxtapositions: from the balanced order of the Casanatese Library in Rome to the chaos of the Agostinelli Museum in Dragona, from the bust of the Great Mother in Tommaso Buzii s ideal city to the cones of Nirano, mud and cold pseudo-vulcans. Camporesi shows also the interaction and commixture of the natural aspect and the architectural elements, such as the ancient Roman theater of Pietravairano towering above the clouds, resembling the vapours of the Biancane of Monterotondo Marittimo - both lunar landscapes.
The text of the American photographer Robert Adams (Orange, 1937) has sparked the interest in Silvia Camporesi for the solitary places characterised by an extreme solitude: Adams explains how landscape photographs contain multiple truth: the geographical one, but also the autobiographical and a metaphorical one, serving as interior landscapes.
Maria Vittoria Baravelli writes: "And we, as spectators, are led to discover these places for the first time together with Silvia because there is no journey without sharing. Just as there is no beauty, poetry, and enchantment if not shared with someone. We ourselves exist only if others exist, and it is the vastness of the world that allows us to investigate our subjectivity." Camporesi chose to take this journey with her friends because, as she often says, sharing is the core concept of this research and the journey taken to arrive to a specific place is often more important than the location and the artistic result themself.
“MIRABILIA”
Artist: Silvia Camporesi
September 14 - November 19, 2023
Tuesday to Friday | 15.00 - 19.00
Podbielski Contemporary
via Vincenzo Monti, 12
20123, Milano
Here the complete list of the other side events taking place in the same days of the Festival.
- Cfp Bauer. “Is this Water”. Curated by the professors and the students of the school.
- Condominio. “Twin Spark”. Curated by Giulia Restifo and Alessandro Calabrese . Artists: Anca Adina Bettega, Matteo Capriotti, Caterina Dondi, and Francesca Rossi.
- Armani/Silos. "Guy Bourdin: Storyteller". Curated by Giorgio Armani and the Guy Bourdin. Estate.
- Leica Galerie. “James’ House” and “Hunting Heart”. Artists: Jacob and Sara Aue Sobol. Curated by Maurizio Beucci and Claudio Composti.
- Istituto italiano di fotografia. “Ex Novo. Digestioni a catena”. Artists: Giuseppe Laera and Luigi Notarnicola.
- 29 Arts in Progress Gallery. “Michel Haddi: Beyond Fashion”.
- Perimetro. “MATCH!”. Workshop curated by Sebastiano Leddi.
- Micamera. “Swim Till I Sank”. Artist: Gabriele Stabile.
- Palazzo Reale. “JIMMY NELSON. Humanity”. Curated by Nicolas Ballario and Federica Crivellaro.
- Still Fotografia. "Giorgio Galimberti: alchimia dell’ombra". Curated by Alessandro Curti.
- Monica De Cardenas Gallery. “Stephan Balkenhol” .
PhotoVogue Festival is a project directed by Alessia Glaviano (Head of Global PhotoVogue) and co-curated by Francesca Marani (Senior Photo Editor, Vogue Italia), Chiara Bardelli Nonino (Editor, Writer and Curator), Daniel Rodríguez Gordillo (Content Operations Strategy Manager, Condé Nast) and Caterina De Biasio (Visual Editor, PhotoVogue)
