Diaries. Private and Shared Stories
Posted on December 29 2020
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Author S Colombo
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Diaries │ 4 December 2020 - 7 January 2021
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The diary as a writing genre has always been meaningful to literature and arts since its first appearances, traced back to at least the 17th century. Diaries are the materialization of our most genuine ‘ego’, which is reflected on a blank page - no filters needed.
Throughout the centuries, journals have been taking various forms, being sometimes notebooks, some others visual collages. Many of you, probably, at a certain point of your life have dealt with this intimate and confidential expression of our soul.
Among some renowned examples, it is worth mentioning: Anna Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” (1947), one of Shoah’s historical proofs, and the irreverent “Zoo station: the Story of Christiane F.” (1978), symbol of a generation adrift. There are then those who wrote their autobiographies on unusual supports - like Cleria Marchi, who poured out her life story on a dowry sheet (1970s-1980s). Or, again, those who used notebooks as a space for thinking, writing, sketching - from Leonardo da Vinci to Frida Kahlo.
Within the group exhibition “Diaries”, an additional ‘diary format’ is presented, which is especially dear to photographers as well as digital artists. The series of pictures exhibited at Spazio Millepiani in Rome between December, 4 2020 and January, 7 2021 reveal a new way of dealing with our intimate self.
Among some renowned examples, it is worth mentioning: Anna Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” (1947), one of Shoah’s historical proofs, and the irreverent “Zoo station: the Story of Christiane F.” (1978), symbol of a generation adrift. There are then those who wrote their autobiographies on unusual supports - like Cleria Marchi, who poured out her life story on a dowry sheet (1970s-1980s). Or, again, those who used notebooks as a space for thinking, writing, sketching - from Leonardo da Vinci to Frida Kahlo.
Within the group exhibition “Diaries”, an additional ‘diary format’ is presented, which is especially dear to photographers as well as digital artists. The series of pictures exhibited at Spazio Millepiani in Rome between December, 4 2020 and January, 7 2021 reveal a new way of dealing with our intimate self.
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The diary, usually conceived as a private tool, on this occasion is open to both the public and the social sphere, so as to share variable themes and perspectives. The images on show clearly reveal those dynamics, moving from an individual point of view (I/ the photographer) towards a common externality. The result is a gallery of personal and yet collective images able to harmonically connect all these thoughts and ideas.
Once crossing this first, aesthetic threshold, one will be able to find other resemblances, establishing a lucid narrative ongoing from room to room. Frame by frame, story after story.
Within those visual diaries, everyday life as we know it is laid bare, with no secrets left aside. It turns into an invisible line lingering first on our look and then focusing on what is ‘outside’. A line that draws real life scenes, set along the streets, at demonstrations... but also wide-angled and detailed scenes that are difficult to grasp at first glance. People, places, colours describe anecdotes, they taste like memories we want to preserve and remember.
Visuality becomes a metaphor for an emotional journey through the artists’ (and our) existence as individuals and human beings.
Once crossing this first, aesthetic threshold, one will be able to find other resemblances, establishing a lucid narrative ongoing from room to room. Frame by frame, story after story.
Within those visual diaries, everyday life as we know it is laid bare, with no secrets left aside. It turns into an invisible line lingering first on our look and then focusing on what is ‘outside’. A line that draws real life scenes, set along the streets, at demonstrations... but also wide-angled and detailed scenes that are difficult to grasp at first glance. People, places, colours describe anecdotes, they taste like memories we want to preserve and remember.
Visuality becomes a metaphor for an emotional journey through the artists’ (and our) existence as individuals and human beings.
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Claudia Cantarini, The Best Moment of The Day, 2020
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Taking a step back, or forward - depending on the point of view -, the viewers meet face-to-face with a more cogent subjectivity, expressed through portraits and self-portraits. The artists, in this case, reflect more or less directly on the people they are surrounded by, but especially on themselves, on their corporeality and their presence in the world. Many are the questions still unsolved, involving existential principles such as life and death, presence and absence, love and hate. In an endless dance that goes back to itself, to the point where it started.
Some other pictures go beyond this, heading towards intimacy. In its turn, inwardness is explored in such a powerful way that it tears down the barriers between licit and illicit, norm and taboo. For our part, we just have to attend a dance that literally exposes the artists and the subjects they picked.
Poetry becomes lyrical and the rhythm slows down - carte blanche to human unveiled bodies interacting, interweaving.
These bodies are the artists looking at themselves. They are we, staring at them and then reflecting on us. Triggering a never-ending circle.
Some other pictures go beyond this, heading towards intimacy. In its turn, inwardness is explored in such a powerful way that it tears down the barriers between licit and illicit, norm and taboo. For our part, we just have to attend a dance that literally exposes the artists and the subjects they picked.
Poetry becomes lyrical and the rhythm slows down - carte blanche to human unveiled bodies interacting, interweaving.
These bodies are the artists looking at themselves. They are we, staring at them and then reflecting on us. Triggering a never-ending circle.
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Sijia Ma, Mosaic Blue, 2020
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Kay Kwabia, Headspace, 2020
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Vera Laponkina, Echoes of Yesterday, 2020
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Liliya Shapran, Love Me, 2019
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Kyle Petersen, Growing Wild, 2015 / Brixhilda Myrtaj, Brigilda Murtai, 2019 / Claudia Cantarini, Untitled, 2020 / Iness Rychlik, Voyeurism, 2017
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