ART-PRESENTATION:Give Me Yesterday
Osservatorio is Fondazione Prada’s new exhibition space in Milan dedicated to photography and visual languages, occupying 800 square meters on the 5th and 6th floors of one of the historic buildings of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and overlooking the grand glass and iron dome at the center of the arcade, Osservatorio, sits above the eponymous Prada’s flagship store, the fashion brand’s first location opened in 1913.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo Fondazione Prada Archive
Osservatorio inaugurated with the exhibition “Give Me Yesterday”, a group show of autobiographical character that explores the use of photography as a personal diary over a period of time ranging from the early 2000s through today. In a context characterized by the pervasive presence of photography devices and an uninterrupted circulation of images produced and shared through digital platforms, a generation of young artists has transformed the photographic diary into an instrument to focus on their own daily lives and intimate, personal rituals. Familiar with work by artists like: Nan Goldin, Larry Clark, Richard Billingham and Wolfgang Tillmans the photographers presented in “Give Me Yesterday” turn the immediacy and spontaneity of documentary style into an extreme control over the gaze of those who observe and are observed. This creates a new diary in which instant photography is mixed with exhibition photography, imitating the repetitive cataloguing of the internet and employing the performative component of images to affirm individual or collective identities. Although the artists showcased in the exhibition differ considerably in their stylistic approaches, all of their work is intensely personal. Melanie Bonajo for example, has, for her series “Anti-Selfie”, photographed herself every time she cried, a tour de force of raw vulnerability as well as a reaction to contemporary society’s notions of happiness and male-centric female imagery. identity as well as his own. Others artists like Leigh Ledare and Lebohang Kganye have chosen to tell their story through a close family member. Ledare, once an assistant to Larry Clark, has photographed his mother in intricately staged, risqué poses for his series “Pretend You’re Actually Alive”, while Kganye’s work, also centered around her mother who has passed away, features old family photos of her mother on which the artist has superimposed her own image, blurring the line between real and imagined memories. The exhibition also features work by Ryan McGinley, whose cross-country car trips with friends in the mid-2000s produced a series of pictures that combine a sense of motion with an air of intimacy. Participating artists: Melanie Bonajo, Kenta Cobayashi, Tomé Duarte, Irene Fenara, Lebohang Kganye, Vendula Knopová, Leigh Ledare, Wen Ling, Ryan McGinley, Izumi Miyazaki, Joanna Piotrowska, Greg Reynolds, Antonio Rovaldi and Maurice van Es.
Info: Curator: Francesco Zanot, Fondazione Prada, Osservatorio, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Piazza del Duomo, Milan, Duration: 21/12/16-12/3/17, www.fondazioneprada.org
