Foto/Industria 2015: Bologna blesses industrial (art)photography

The second edition of Foto/Industria sounds like a sumptuous gift to those who walk in Bologna during October and have the chance to join 14 exhibitions disseminated in 11 peculiar and very fascinating locations (historical palaces and sites, baroque chapels, museums) in the city center and at MAST, together with a rich program of collateral initiatives (guided visits, conversations, kids workshop, projections). And no less – it’s all for free. The Industrial Photography Biennial produced, organized and promoted by MAST Foundation, in cooperation with Comune di Bologna, is definitely growing bigger, following the strong will of the president, Isabella Seràgnoli, to focus the research and activity in the industrial field, which has not yet been really considered and celebrated and offers an enormous range of possible declinations and interpretations. The word “industry” might be better meant in the American way: from production to working and social life. It tells us about stuff, machines, scenario, human beings and a certain voice from the global world, filtered by great variety of viewpoints.

 

Kathy Ryan, Foto/Industria 2015

Kathy Ryan – 6:17:2013, 6.49 P.M.

 

The Artistic Director and curator François Hébel has articulated the F/I Biennale on the complex labor theme (material & immaterial) considering 5 sections with relative artists, to resume and perform the whole process: production (Edward Burtynsky, O. Winston Link, Luca Campigotto), post-production (David LaChapelle, Hong Hao), producers (Pierre Gonnord, Neal Slavin, Gianni Berengo Gardin), pause (Kathy Ryan, Jason Sangik Noh) and products (Hein Gorny, Léon Gimpel). The common value that all these players seem to share is a kind of “human touch” that crosses their different perspectives, through the medium of a camera, creating tough and unexpected visions of  so-called reality and expressing an emotional and personal (artistic) approach to things. The intention is to spread the themes of the photography to a wider audience, also contributing to overcome some kinds of prejudice and limit, and moreover to improve the quality of our sights. The enlightening and daring curation of Hébel leads us to some unexplored and enchanting territories of photography – I dare to say, with the excuse of the industry theme – helping us to transform a certain and classical idea of photography itself, as a recognized art branch. Walking through these exhibitions you can see prints (of different sizes and installation techniques), LCD videos, slideshows accompanied by music (as a part of the installation), in such magic locations filled with history and art. A festival (more than an exhibition) that reminds us of the freedom and power that photography contains and gives.

 

Kathy Ryan, Foto/Industria 2015

Exhibition view of “Office Romance” by Kathy Ryan,  Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica di Bologna

 

Having to grasp the most impressive and interesting side of the whole (big) thing – in terms of contemporary art matters – I choose the artists exhibiting inside the “pause” section: i.e. Kathy Ryan from New York and Jason Sangik Noh from Seoul. I see them both as outsider figures considering different elements such as themes, types of installation, techniques, aims of the project, professions and of course geographical areas of origin. And well, a gamble: it’s likely a debut for both, as they exhibit out of their countries for the very first time, and have just started to take discreet confidence with the art world.

 

Kathy Ryan, Foto/Industria 2015

Exhibition view of “Office Romance” by Kathy Ryan,  Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica di Bologna

Jason Sangik Noh, Foto/Industria 2015

Exhibition view of “Biography of cancer” by Jason Sangik Noh,  Villa delle Rose, Bologna

 

Kathy Ryan is Director of Photography at The New York Times Magazine. But working as a photo-editor (thirty years of experience) was not the beginning of the story. Everything started after moving in the new Renzo Piano designed building: she felt sick about leaving her old building’s atmosphere. A big change in habits and geometries, that prevented her to see what was around till the moment she “saw a bolt of light zigzag across the stairs one afternoon” in the office of the new building. A real epiphany that suddenly reveled a new world, and new actions. She pulled out her iPhone and took a picture of it. November 14, 2012, 2:32 pm. That’s the birth of “Office Romance”. And it was the start of a new relationship with this workplace, and maybe with photography itself, as Kathy Ryan began to post and share her pictures on Instagram (@KathyRyan1), receiving a huge numbers of likes as an encouragement to go on and deeper in this brand new activity – mobile photography, a phenomenon that has just began to bear fruit. She says that she became addicted, and she started seeing pictures everywhere, catching shoots first by chance and then starting to build her sceneries, asking colleagues to pose for her, or waiting by the building’s big windows looking for the right moment to capture with a click. The light that crosses Renzo Piano’s building gives her the chance to create compositions where geometry plays an important role. Taking a break in the early morning or night, before or after crazy office life, she creates an intimate and calm place that lets her art visions flows: a different glimpse to the working space that interacts with lives. Kathy Ryan’s exhibition is held at the Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica di Bologna and includes printed and framed square photos (the size is quite small and reminds of a screen of a mobile device), a slideshow with a soundtrack projected onto a big screen inside a black room, and a ticker recalling the one at New York Magazine, posting Kathy Ryan’s daily schedule.

 

Kathy Ryan, Foto/Industria 2015

Kathy Ryan, “Office Romance” at Foto/Industria 2015

 

Jason Sangik Noh is a surgeon specialized in cancer treatment, working basically in Seoul but also in missions abroad (Vietnam). He started to take and accumulate pictures and documents concerning his medical activity from the very beginning, as a sort of personal diary. The collection of material was not bound for an art aim, but progressively things have changed, together with aim and message. “Biography of cancer” is a touching project that combines many different elements like the severity and coldness of medical science, ethic and treatments, the human relation with patients, a raising awareness about the disease, and an aesthetic cut that shapes perturbing things into an artwork. It’s about people (working), objects (instruments, exams, machineries, surgical waste), and life. And it’s going on – as a work in progress started in 2008.

 

Jason Sangik Noh, Foto/Industria 2015

Jason Sangik Noh, “Pancreas and spleen” (2009)

 

Jason Sangik Noh, Foto/Industria 2015

Exhibition view of “Biography of cancer” by Jason Sangik Noh,  Villa delle Rose, Bologna

 

The structure of the show recalls a medical article being composed by 5 tracks: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusion and Discussion. All the further information about works in exposition are displayed on medical clipboards and contain data and stories of patients (an idea conceived by Hébel). Room after room inside the beautiful Villa delle Rose (that has been also used as an hospital during World War II), with different installation techniques, the images become less figurative and dissolved into macro pixel-tableaux: “Till this result met #nr”. It makes me think about Paul Klee’s process of abstraction: a sort of digitally painted composition. Some pics are quite shocking and the whole installation leaves deep signs on visitors.
The project has recently won an award by the Ilwoo Foundation in Korea, which led to the publishing of a book by Hatje Cantz.

Foto/Industria Bologna’15 is on view in Bologna (click on the link to see the different locations) through November 1st, 2015.

Leave a Reply

by Antonella Gasparato
in Focus on Europe

Wed Development by THX88.net Digital Art Factory