Recalling the first photo of Earth taken from the Moon, published in 1969, photographer Luigi Ghiri wrote that it was not “just an image of the world but an image which contained all the images of the world: graffiti, frescoes, paintings, writings, photographs, books, films.” It was an event which left a profound mark on society and art in those years. In July 2010 the European Space Agency circulated the first photograph of the whole of the universe, which contained the whole of its past, including its moment of creation, the so-called Big Bang. Scientists may therefore journey back in time, removing layer after layer, as one does when restoring a painting, until they reach that weak microwave radiation produced by the enormous explosion which generated space, time and matter 13.7 billion years ago. This was an epoch-making event, published in the media without any song and dance, as though it were quite normal. The French curator and new media expert Richard Castelli recently said: “The problem with our present is that it is so present that it is killing the future and has almost completely killed history”. In this context the eternal present of photography should find its maximum expression and yet, paradoxically, it seems that the image is no longer adequate to represent reality and must necessarily form a hybrid with other practices. Recently there has been a great deal of discussion between people questioning the future of photography. These are divided equally between the new doomsayers who prematurely decree its definitive demise, the fundamentalists of analogical and documentary dogma, and the new-radicals who advocate postproduction at any cost. British photographer Paul Graham said, in the speech he delivered at the MoMA Photography Forum, that we are in a post-documentary age in which the position of so-called “ ‘straight’ photography in the art world reminds me of the parable of an isolated community who grew up eating potatoes all their life, and when presented with an apple, thought it unreasonable and useless, because it didn’t taste like a potato..”

Rather than coming up with solutions the fifth edition of Rapallo Fotografia Contemporanea, attempts to raise some doubts by proposing a reflection on the essentiality of photography. The new series of portraits by Dutch artist Charlotte Dumas, dedicated to working dogs , leads us back to a basic, lean and stripped down form of the image that is only apparently more simple as it is rich in social references and implications, just like human dynamics. Similarly the six artists in the Open Space section Bergantini, Crovetto, Garibotti, Leotta, Ligato and Positano, are extremely conscious of the way that they deal with the theme of the return to the image as image. Seeking essentiality does not in this case mean regressing to a primordial state or returning to a hypothetical garden of Eden. Rather it means concentrating on the image itself, without adding anything else.

Andrea Botto
RFC Artistic Director

“Workers of the world, unite!”. So goes the well-known rallying cry of socialism extracted from the Communist Party Manifesto. Without needing to change a single word the same motto might also be used to describe the process which has led to the production of this series of photographs by Charlotte Dumas. It does not matter that the artist has only put dogs in the centre of every frame. The fact is that all of them are worthy representatives of the category to which Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels referred. They own nothing and they make a living serving the most wildly different sectors, from hunting to rescue, from entertainment to security. They take orders from a master but the simple loyalty that they show towards him is sufficient to transform their status from slaves to heroes. This is how they appear in these images, proud and determined, just like the workers who Lewis Hine portrayed in factories or on the top of the Empire State Building in the early part of the last century. Both embody the values of sacrifice, without this necessarily taking place (dogs can toil or play while performing their tasks) and regardless of any theology.

(...) “I felt like a dog. So I made this sculpture”, said Giacometti after modeling the ragged contours of his almost-greyhound in 1951. It is paradoxical that one of the most accurate self-portraits in the history of art does not resemble its artist at all. In photography, on the other hand, to immortalise an animal means putting into practice a dynamics which resembles that of the self-portrait, with the difference being that those who participate are not just those who click the shutter but, by turns, each and every viewer. Indeed, what you can read in the expressions of these dogs is, above all, a projection of our thinking. Their eloquence is, at least in part, the eloquence of those viewing them. (...)

Francesco Zanot
abstract from the text published in “Al lavoro!”
Fantombooks, Boiler Editions, Milan


Order the book here

Ten special copies of the book are available, signed by the artist and with ‘la zampa di Ursus’- the foot print of Ursus - the cover dog of the book.
Order to info@rapallofotografiacontemporanea.it

The Open Space group exhibition, gathers the works of six Italian artists who deal with the theme of the return to the essentiality of the image. Simone Bergantini presents "Astrazioni", part of the project entitled Osservazioni sulla Fotografia, a cycle of works whose only limit is the non-use of the camera. The “Ritratti Vegetali” series by Albino Crovetto is an exercise in cruelty on the portrait where the face is incorporated into the thickness of ribbons of plastic reproduced by the scanner. The work of Renato Leotta is principally an analysis of the structures and the state of development of language, where the photograph is merely a point of departure. Vittoria Garibotti has produced an installation of photographs taken with her mobile phone, now an inevitable tool and filter of contemporary visual culture. The belief which underpins the photographic performance project in which Alessandro Ligato burns the t-shirts he has worn during the course of a week is that any day or moment in a person’s life leaves a trace, a mark on the person. Anna Positano offers images of real places which, thanks to their cut and composition, become formal abstractions even though they remain recognisable.

Rapallo Fotografia Contemporanea 2010
"Custodire la memoria"

Rapallo Fotografia Contemporanea 2008
"On the road, again"

Rapallo Fotografia Contemporanea 2007
"Il senso delle cose"

Rapallo Fotografia Contemporanea 2006

The Rapallo Contemporary Photography project, which began in 2006 and is the brainchild of photographer Andrea Botto, is promoted by Rapallo Town Council with the contribution of some public institutions and the backing of various private sponsors. The jewel in the crown of this unique event in Liguria is its international artist-in-residence. The artist is invited to produce a new work, linked to the territory of the eastern Riviera of Liguria, which is published in a monograph and exhibited in the rooms of the Ancient Castle. Every artist invited donates some works to Rapallo Council for the Civic Collection of Contemporary Photography, which is in the process of being assembled.

RAPALLO FOTOGRAFIA CONTEMPORANEA_5

Antico Castello sul Mare
Lungomare Vittorio Veneto, Rapallo

15 gennaio – 13 febbaio 2011


For Info:
info@rapallofotografiacontemporanea.it