Paola De Pietri / Alessandra Spranzi — CPIF — Centre photographique d’Ile-de-France — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: January 18 → March 29, 2015

Alessandra Spranzi, Paola de Pietri, CPIF, Pontault-Combault Le Centre photographique d’Île-de-France organise une double exposition en forme de rencontre entre les deux artistes italiennes Al... 2 - Bien Critique

The Centre Photographique d’Île-de-France presents works by Paola De Pietri and Alessandra Spranzi, two Italian artists who are very active on the international art scene. These two monographic exhibitions differ in that each artist pursues a different line of research — the first showing an interest in open spaces, landscapes that are evolving and are marked by the hand of man, the second focussing more on the closed space of the domestic environment — yet also show what their respective bodies of work have in common : each artist questions our home or habitat, man’s temporary or durable place in the world.

Sortilegio d’Alessandra Spranzi

Spectators confronted with Alessandra Spranzi’s work at her first French solo exhibition will be amazed and full of wonder as they contemplate the most banal objects as if seeing them for the very first time.

Alessandra Spranzi methodically selects photographs from manuals or classified ads magazines and completely transforms them. These images, which remind us of the domestic world and its objects, are removed from their original context, re-photographed by the artist and either presented as such or used in collages. Through this process, the artist invests these trivial objects with an enigmatic, almost metaphysical quality and, as if by magic, reveals the enchantment in our daily lives.

Alessandra Spranzi, Sortilegio #2, 2012 52 × 41,5 cm © Alessandra Spranzi — Courtesy of Galerie P420, Bologne

Night Stories de Paola De Pietri

“From Paola De Pietri’s work emerges (…) the impression of an open space, one which is for everybody and yet private and existential (…) and in which the human figure has been precisely, but also precariously positioned.”

Roberta Valtorta, photographic historian.

Paola De Pietri questions the way in which historical transformations give substance to urban or ‘natural’ landscapes and the fragile place occupied by Man. Her series Istanbul New Stories, which has never been exhibited in France, is a documentary-style observation of the transformation of Istanbul’s suburbs : the photos of dwellings — some of which are in construction, whilst others fall into ruin — are analytical and yet poetic. In To Face, the artist follows the Italian-Austrian WWI front to reveal the stigmata of war, the trenches, tunnels and shelters that have almost entirely disappeared with the passing of time. The portraits in Aéroport, subtly highlight identity.

Two artists and two forms of action in reaction to the rapidly increasingand, sometimes brutal, changes to our living environment.

Paola De Pietri, Aéroport, 2008 © Paola De Pietri — Courtesy of Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris

Paola De Pietri and Alessandra Spranzi are represented respectively by the Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (Paris) and P420 Arte Contemporanea (Bologna).