eyephoneography #2 RELOADED

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The 8th of October 2011 within the official program of the VII Giornata del Contemporaneo (7th Day of Contemporary Art) organized by AMACI, the Italian Association of Contemporary Art Museums, there will be the event eyephoneography #2 RELOADED, organized by the cultural association Arteaparte in collaboration with FIAF (Italian Federation of Photographic Associations) and the cultural association Fata Morgana.

The 7th Day of Contemporary Art provides a well articulated program of exhibitions, workshops, events and conferences, all completely free, and features artists and new ideas to allow the public to get acquainted with the complex and dynamic world of contemporary art. Organized by AMACI, which brings together 26 of the most important Italian contemporary art museums, this 7th edition holds the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and the support of the Ministry of Culture, confirming its position as one of the most important events of modern and contemporary art.

Among the more than 1000 events planned for this year, there will also be eyephoneography #2 RELOADED, a show that will take place in the UB!K bookstore in Cosenza and includes a projection of the images of eyephoneography #2  (Matt Burrows, Carlein van Der Beek, Stefano Giogli and Jordi V. Pou) followed by a debate around the new forms of contemporary photography with Attilio Lauria (organizer and curator of the i.Phoneography contest, president of the FIAF Calabria and editor of Fotoit), Emilio Arnone (polyhedric photo editor with numerous collaborations including Wim Wenders), Marcello Walter Bruno and Massimo Celani (professors of Institutions of Cinematographic and Television Languages, and Advertising Laguages at UNICAL).

We asked some questions to Attilio Lauria, who was also in the selection committee of eyephoneography #2.

Attilio, why do you think it is appropriate to have a mobile photography event in such an important day dedicated to contemporary art?

Contemporary art is increasingly characterized by the use of processes widely structured or contaminated by photography, up to a point that, as noted by Charlotte Cotton, identifying art as the preferred territory for their images is currently the aspiration of many photographers.

Having said that, it is obviously impossible an a priori identification between art and photography.

Another possible misunderstanding in this regard is the assumption that the results of the photographic act can be considered the founding paradigm of artistry; in other words, it is not possible, simply from the result of an operation with true aesthetic intention and dimension, to bring together the artistic approach, as expression of a techne, and the skills underlying the editing process. It would tie the potential of mobile photography artistry to a physical quality of the image, be it formal or relative to post-production.

A theoretical position, yours Attilio, in which one can recognize Philippe Dubois’ notion of photography as “art moyenne” …

Yes, of course. As Philippe Dubois said, a picture is not just an image (the product of a technique and an action, the result of doing and knowing how to do it), it is also, above all, an iconic act meaning that this act is not limited simply to only the gesture of the actual production of the image.

What rather defines and brings together the processes of contemporary art – among which mobile photography can certainly and legitimately be ascribed to via its contribution to the process of un-definition of art – is the linguistic reflection on the medium, which, by giving to photography the dimension of a cultural codification process absolutely identical to all other forms of language, makes it central the ideas and the planning at the basis of the photographic act.

And how do you think eyephoneography #2 comes into this linguistic process?

First of all, it is certainly recognizable the codification process we talked about in the broadest terms of linguistic query on the role of the artist: each one the authors of eyephoneography #2 experiments with new possibilities of signification of genres already well known to photography, beginning with the portrait, considered as its oldest application.

In all, what unites the authors of eyephoneography #2 in this set of works is a clear linguistic choice that stems from the desire to relate to reality in a cultural sense, by making of this reality a conceptual dematerialization that precedes the photographic act. And this is what mobile photography requires: while being aware of its mass practice nature, it should become a laboratory capable of stratifying different backgrounds and processualities by combining perceptual and interpretative logics, in tune with the urgency for continuous innovation of the contemporary creative process.

Mobile photography fits into the dynamics of contemporary art precisely because of this conceptual distance from the photograph in its objectual dimension; a distance that values the mode of operation of mobile photography. In other words, this would be equivalent to affirming that the status of art is ultimately decided by the dynamics of the art market.

Grazie Attilio!

Grazie a voi! You are of course all invited to the event in Cosenza (IT) the 8th of October 2011.

 

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