Urbanautica

RAGUSA FOTO FESTIVAL 2019

by Simona Marani

The family is just like us. More complex and articulated than many definitions and clichés. Different from what they tell us and almost always, even from what we want. But all require great care. Wonderfully sung by Franco Battiato and photographed by David Chancellor, with the heart "to handle like eggs" and his perfect family to make us reflect on what makes different worlds beat. Ideally, it introduces the articulated focus on the relationship that photography entertains from its origins with the family, the protagonist of the VIII edition of Ragusa Foto Festival. The guiding image of the festival, taken to his family by the British Chancellor, with enchanting suggestions that change perspective even to the clichés, immediately introduces the discussion in the heart of the topic: the heart! "I once saw a box. Simply a Tupperware container actually, only slightly grander than that. It was indistinguishable from many other boxes of the same nature other than the fact it had a strip of white surgical tape on its lid. Written in ‘sharpie’ were the words ‘handle like eggs’. ‘What’s in there?’ I asked, ‘it’s a heart… and ice, of course, to keep it alive’. – love, loss, life and death”. Here Chancellor, widely known for his photography dedicated to wildlife preservation, is presenting an intimate picture of his family.

© David Chancellor from the series 'Handle Like Eggs'

Installation view on David Chancellor, 'Handle Like Eggs', at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Following, a round dance about the world of the family, ideally opened by the hundred fragments of the immense archive of the first Italian photographer of the Magnum Agency as Ferdinando Scianna, born in Bagheria, Sicily on the July 4th, 1943. Family visions from thirty countries, framed over the course of four decades, between kisses by Sicilian spouses and embraces of African mothers.

© Ferdinando Scianna, Bagheria, 1970

© Ferdinando Scianna talk with journalist Sonja Riva

On show the series "Hidden Identities" by Yvonne De Rosa, photographed between Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the intent to document family conditions for the international association Hope and Homes for Children. Sam Harris brings to the festival the voice of the unspoiled childhood of the daughters, grown in the south-west of Australia and protagonists of the award-winning and vital "The Middle of Somewhere".

© Yvonne De Rosa from the series 'Hidden Identities'

Detail of the installation by Yvonne De Rosa, 'Hidden Identities' at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

There are several personal exhibitions that illuminate a fascinating and rugged terrain, along with projects that use the language of photography to dialogue with mother and daughter, like the long journey of growth of the intriguing Memymom by Lisa De Boeck & Marilène Coolens.

© Memymom, I eat alone, 2013

Installation view on Mmymom at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

With "The Hereditary State" the American photographer Daniel W. Coburn, he spent a decade examining how the family album visually supports the American dream. "What Where" by the Brazilian Julia Kater also invites you to move away from perceptive habits, working on the most elusive boundaries of the familiar represented with images.

© Daniel W. Coburn from the series 'The Hereditary State'

Details of the installation 'Thee Hereditary State' by Daniel W. Coburn at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Installation view of 'What Where' by Julia Kater at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Installation view of 'What Where' by Julia Kater at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

We are also witnessing pushes beyond photographic boundaries, up to the distortion of the production and conservation of family memories. "Digital disorientation" is a collective survey of the possible geographies of visual language, which contains works from Andrea Buzzichelli's 'Resurrection', Stefano Parrini's FAIL, Giovanni Presutti's 'The Era of Beyond Truth' and by new media artist Eric Souther.

© Andrea Buzzichelli from the series 'Resurrection'

Installation view on Andrea Buzzichelli's 'Resurrection, at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

© Stefani Parrini from the series 'FAIL'

Installation view of Stefano Parrini's 'FAIL' at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Book 'The Era of Beyond Truth' by Giovanni Presutti

Installation view of 'The Era of Beyond Truth' by Giovanni Presutti at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

The family lexicon that changes, makes somersaults with the imaginary and the triple leap pierced with our lives, nourishes the visual path of the collective exhibit curated by the Urbanautica Institute of Steve Bisson. 18 different authors and looks. Ready to dig into the black and white of the origins that smell of the future and sweetened coffee of the Italian Enrico Sisti. All the color of single mothers photographed by Loulou d’Aki in Sweden, a country that since April 2016 protect their assisted fertilization.

© Enrico Sisti from the series 'Sugar for my cup of coffee'

Installation view of 'Sugar for my cup of coffee' by Enrico Sisti at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

© Loulou d'Aki from the series 'Mother of Choice'

The black and white family ties extended to genetic inheritance, is in the lens of the Dutch Mascha Joustra that observes the growth of the only daughter. In an analogous but different way, not only for the chromatic range, the autobiographical project of the Italian Paola Fiorini traces its origins in the relationship with her daughter: "I find myself in the gaze, in the movements, and in my daughter’s attitudes. In the folds of her skin, I look for the traces of my roots". The Spanish Raquel Bravo Iglesias proposes a new montage of the family album and of the cultural memory that it holds. Her compatriot Lorena Morin photographs her family universe, marked by feelings, difficulties, fatigue, life and what passes, even with a leg in a cast.

© Raquel Bravo Iglesias from the series 'Berocoan'

Installation view of the artwork 'Berocan' by Raquel Bravo Iglesias at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

© Installation view of the works by Lorena Morin from thee series 'Je Rest Avec Vous', at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

© Paola Fiorini from the series 'Do Ut Des'

Installation view of Paola Fiorini's 'Do Ut Des' at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

© Mascha Joustra from the series ‘my sweet little phenotype’

The family is joy and pain, but it is the inexorable collision of love and hate that drives the difficult life and the exploration of the family lexicon of the American John-David Richardson, as well as the visual research of the German Sina Niemeyer who uses her personal history to explore the traumatic experience of child sexual abuse.

Installation view of John-David Richardson's 'Some I'll Find the Sun' at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

© Sina Niemeyer from the series 'für mich'

Installation view of Sina Niemeyer's 'für mich' at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

The journey of the lexicon continues, moving from Merve Terzi's rediscovered Turkey to the familiar Bosnia of the Dutch migrant Misha Pipercic, from the beautiful and terrifying experience of framing the mother of the American Emily Wiethorn, to the one that rediscovers the uniqueness of Long Beach by the compatriot Kovi Konowiecki. The French Laura Lafon turns in images the greatest fears of children who become adults.

Installation view of ‘it flies, invisible’ by Merve Terzi at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Installation view of 'Once When We Were Happy' by Misha Pipercic at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Installation view of ‘Delivering Flowers to Grandpa Jack’ by at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Installation view of ‘Je ne veux plus vous voir (mais c’est provisoire)’ by Laura Lafon at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

The Italians identify the home as a family space from which it all begins and returns, undefined for Nicola Di Giorgio, the mirror of Olivetti's dream realized in Ivrea for Paolo Mazzo. The family album by Claudia Corrent starts from the synthesis of personal and collective photos, that of Angelo Anzalone from an emotional and temporal short-circuit, triggered by combining the photos found between the ruins of the grandparents' house and the more contemporary ones. Alessandra Dragoni further extends the syntax to the family status of married and unmarried couples and single parents, of natural and adoptive children.

Details of the installation 'Le case Olivetti a Ivrea’' by Paolo Mazzo at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Artwork by Paolo Mazzo from the series 'Le case Olivetti a Ivrea’'

Installation view of 'Stato di famiglie' by Alessandra Dragoni at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

Detail of the installation 'Stato di famiglie' by Alessandra Dragoni at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

The festival also reflects on the delicate topic of abortion with "Body of Jane" by Emilia Pizzonia, winner of the Best Portfolio Award 2018: "Motherhood in the past was the only socially accepted role for women, the aim of the female gender was to have children and those who did not have them or did not want to have them were against nature, almost a half-woman".

Even high school students took part in this rich program, which includes photographic and artist books, portfolio readings, talks and breakfasts with photographers during the opening days of 26-28 July and until the end of August.

A view of Ragusa, Ibla

A picture of staff and friends at Ragusa Foto Festival 2019

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LINKS
Ragusa Foto Festival
Original article (in Italian) on Elle.com

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