Guardare | Maddalena - New Lo-Fi Topographies
18.5.2012 - 26.5.2012
Photographers: Laura Avarino, Giulia Flavia Baczynski, Daniel Campagne, Lisa De Bernardi, Stefano Pola, Nuvola Ravera, Marika Saonari, Alessio Vecchié
Curator: Anna Positano
This exhibition deals with the wider meanings of urban landscape in the form of the collective project. Cultural association DisorderDrama, supported by the Italian Ministry of Youth, organized Guardare | Maddalena artistic programme which involved eight young photographers (18-29). The task was to contribute to the ongoing renewal of Maddalena, a tough neighbourhood in the old town of Genova (Italy).
The complexity of this urban area suggested the necessity of multiple points of view in order to provide a fitting – though partial – interpretation of it. According to this, the work of these young photographers puts in light some important peculiarities and brings into question the perception we have of urban space. From their projects we learn how the shape of a city relates to the use people make of it: via della Maddalena is a small high street which carves a dense urban area and it has no piazzas suitable for people to stop. Then we realize that public and private space often mingle. Just to mention one, there are young women selling their own-private-selves in the middle of the street, by occupying it with their chairs. Probably we do not think of them as women with private lives and stories, beyond their work as prostitutes. Furthermore in via della Maddalena food has a privileged role in ethnic relationships. Not only this neighbourhood hosts international restaurants, but they became the substitute of piazzas: there, people of different nationalities gather and start friendships.
However the neighbourhood feels the effects of the crisis; shops shut down, crime takes over. The exhibition takes place in two of the several empty shops in via della Maddalena high street. This is one of DisorderDrama collective’s political issue: the more shops closed, the more a neighbourhood looks run down. Moreover empty shops are a waste for everyone, especially during recession times. Then it followed the choice of re-using these spaces, similarly to other European experiences – among others the Empty Shops Network in London.
The lo-fi look of the photographs is because Guardare | Maddalena is shot in film with amateur’s cameras. Through this experience DisorderDrama aspired to bring back to life these old cameras which laid unused for years. For some of the photographers this was their first experience with film.