March 4

We are not Martians – the photography of Edward Burtynsky

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(By Cesare Alemanni)

Image from www.edwardburtynsky.com

The art of canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky reminds us of the movies by Godfrey Reggio. Similarly to the work of the Koyaanisqatsi director, the images of Burtynsky are focused on human intervention over the environment. His favourite subjects are big massive constructions and urban landscapes that often he portrays as abanonded by mankind. For this last reason his work could even remind of some apocalyptic themes like those in Cormac Mc Carthy’s The Road or J.G Ballard’s literature. His naturalistic aesthetic tells us, without any explicit polemic intent, that our intervention over earth’s soil will survive us, but perhaps our pervasiveness could not be the right way to deal with our planet. Read more

February 24

Gentlemen of Bacongo by Daniele Tamagni. Book presentation @ Forma, Milan

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(All images © Daniele Tamagni)

Tomorrow, february, 25

h 6.30 pm

Forma. Centro Internazionale di Fotografia

Piazza Tito Lucrezio Caro, 1

20136 Milano

info@formafoto.it

Gentlemen of Bacongo by Daniele Terragni

Book presentation

Photographer Daniele Tamagni, designer and stylist Marina Spadafora, Francesco Benvenuti Arborio di Gattinara, Trolley publisher Gigi Giannuzzi and Contrasto director Denis Curti will attend and debate on the book.

Download the invitation

Don’t miss the chance to get introduced to the world of style and fashion of Congo Sapeurs that photographer Daniele Tamagni depicted in his, “Gentlemen of Bacongo”. The book is a colourful journey through the streests of Brazzaville and Kinshasa by young photographer Tamagni who has distinguished himself by his sociocultural research on Afro-Caribbean subculters around the world. Tamagni’s interviews to Congolese sapeurs open us the doors to the SAPE creed, the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People who perform and live the dandy-like dressing codes of elegance and behaviour. Refined, respected and admired like real vip by their communities sapeurs inherit and revive the French colonial roots and – despite living in slums and poverty – carry on the daily mission of elegance started by Grenard André Matsoua, the first Grand Sapeur who came back from Paris dressed as a genuine French flâneur in 1922. Tamagni’s eye immortalizes the paradoxes of the sapeur life and brilliantly captures the conflicting belief in good taste performed by gentlemen you wouldn’t expect in the Republic of Congo or in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The eternal and boundless longing for beauty keeps a constant factor of human condition. Aesthetics can be comforting! Read more

January 27

Demolition Man: to Destroy LA is to Build LA

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(By Nicola Bozzi)


Due to a mostly comedy-oriented film education as a kid, I had missed Marco Brambilla’s action-classic Demolition Man (1993) back when I had the chance to catch it in its box-office semi-freshness (17 years ago it took a while before a movie passed from the movie theater to the TV screen). I have recently made up for this lack, and while the roughly-cut screenplay, the flat characters, and the unlikely fighting choreographies might have amused me much more when I was 10 years old, I have to be thankful I could enjoy a first impact with the movie after reading Mike Davis‘ City of Quartz and watching a couple of documentaries about the riots that shook Los Angeles in the 90s. In the analysis that follows, this article here has also been a big inspiration in terms of the movie’s relationship with Hollywood and LA’s urban and social landscape. Read more

January 22

BRICKS OF ENLIGHTENMENT. Ismar Cirkinagic + a-lab @ Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen

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(All materials courtesy of Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center & A-Lab)

BRICKS OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Ismar Cirkinagic + a-lab
ML2090 First Phase 23th January – 14th March
Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center

Kunsthallen Nikolaj presents the installation Brick of Enlightenment by Danish-Bosnian artist Ismar Cirkinagic, in collaboration with the architectural office a-lab. The exhibition is the first phase of three in the project ML2090, and is a visual examination of staging power based on the novel 1984 by George Orwell.
Read more

January 21

Cracking Art Group invades Treviso. Charity auction

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(All materials courtesy of Cracking Art Group)

Consorzio Per Mio Figlio presents Treviso Cracking Art Regeneration, an alliance event betwen contemporary art and solidarity in favour of the paediatric ward of Treviso hospital. Artworks by Cracking Art Group will be put up for auction on tuesday January 26, at 8 pm. The proceeds will be donated to buy two important pieces of medical equipment for Treviso’s younger patients. A minum of Euro 50 grant is requested to join the benefit dinner. Download the invitation. Read more

January 19

Aldo Lanzini – Dopo le cause, prima delle conseguenze

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Aldo Lanzini @ Triennale Bovisa Milano
from February 3 to 28 – dal 3 al 28 febbraio
Opening on Tuesday February 2, h.6.30pm – Inaugurazione martedi 2 febbraio dalle 18.30

Aldo Lanzini’s exhibition is the first of a series of shows, workshops, and events curated by do-knit-yourself and taking place at Triennale Bovisa from February to June 2010.

Together with crocket hook pieces conceived around the theme of identity in costruction, already shown in the photographic version during the Dritto-Rovescio exhibition in March 2009, Lanzini also presents a series of multi-media pieces (drawing, sewing, writing, photography, music and video) some of which have been realized for the occasion. In the spirit of Triennale Bovisa’s activities, where exhibitions become ateliers, during the show (February 2010) the artist and do-knit-yourself will hold Talking Hands, a few open workshops on manual tecniques. Read more

January 18

The Self Assigned Photographer. Farewell to Dennis Stock

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American photo journalist Dennis Stock, also renowned for shooting some of the most famous portraits of celebrities like Audrey Hepburn and James Dean, has died last week. See a tribute video at Magnum Photos.

January 8

MilanoCittàAperta, Journal of Urban Photography. New perspectives on the city

Filed Under architecture, arts, ideas, web | 1 Comment

Dear readers, in case you don’t already know MilanoCittàAperta, Journal of Urban Photography , it’s high time you knew this open collective and have a look to its fine Milan reportages. You could be the next photographer to release your research on the metropolis and let your work be known worldwide! What we appreciated the most of this photographic Milan insight, apart from the obvious good quality of the snap selection, is the attitude of its authors. The editorial team and contributors are all very young but passionate and fierce in their mission, directly dating back to the modern photojournalism of Henri Cartier-Bresson. In times of thought standardization and political genuflection, it’s cool to read someone utter a manifesto and remind us that, quoting Miciap:

“every click/shot corresponds to a reality fragment captured forever, rescued out of becoming and given to timelessness. The photographer can offer his ethical look through his aesthetical look and viceversa [….]. We want to get down to reality and disclose its secrets, use the photographical act to give body to our personal experiences. We declare Milan ‘open city’ and accept the war within the confused chaos of the city. The same city we love and, as photographers, we try to understand and let you know. To know it is to change it.”

© Nicola Bertasi, 2009, Milano, Islands; MilanoCittàAperta, issue #0, summer 2009

Read more

December 23

Panic Attack! Is sci-fi going global?

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(Text by Nicola Bozzi)

As you might have read somewhere (like here, here or here), Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez has just signed a deal with Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures for a future feature sci-fi movie. Raimi was impressed by a short clip Alvarez created and posted on YouTube (see video above), immediately becoming a hit on the video-sharing platform. AtaqueDePànico shows some giant robots attacking the city of Montevideo and destroying all its landmarks, eventually exploding and reducing everything to rubble in a surprisingly good FX spree.

Little else happens in the short movie, which has nonetheless been compared to Neill Blomkamp’s Alive in Joberg, the one that eventually led to District 9. Which one is better and YouTube’s exact role in hi-jacking the attention of the Hollywood industry’s talent scouts are debates I’ll leave for other occasions. What I’m really curious about is: where will Alvarez’s feature film be set?
As we’ve seen before, Peter Jackson’s support to District 9 has been rather invisible and not patronizing, allowing Blomkamp’s movie to become an unprecedented example of sci-fi imagery going global and enriching itself with unexpected locations and social actuality. Seeing Johannesburg taking the place of New York as the theater of human-alien confrontation was one of the reasons why I think the movie is significant: it was also an opportunity to legitimate the ascension of local geographies to the status of global imagery. Read more

December 22

More pictures from the Marina Ballo Charmet exhibition

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(All photos courtesy of Marina Ballo Charmet)

Berlino

Parigi

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