The two artists went and had a good look at Piazza del Duomo – doing so through different and complementary eyes, such that, in milanopiazzaduomo, the dialogue between their works is also a conversation on photography, its language and its intentions. The exhibition is in a room of the Arengario with a large window overlooking the very square itself, turning this also into a comparison between the reality and its portrayal. This venue means that Basilico and Ballo Charmet’s visions are supplemented by a third one, our own.
The exhibition originated as a joint project following encounters between the two photographers and their conversations with Marco Belpoliti.
A second video follows the rectangular perimeter of the space: the artist wanders with her camera positioned at thigh level. Her method of figuration becomes part of a corporeal experience and you have the impression that the lens alone is scanning the surrounding space. When describing this approach which decentralises the angle of the shots, Ballo Charmet speaks of a lens turned into a “body-eye”.
In all these works, Marina Ballo Charmet’s lens does not focus on a specific point; it does not analyse. It perceives the sense of suspension in the deserted square by night, the pervading light and the first movements of a city reawakening - phenomena that are repeated every day. The ordinary life of the city but an ordinary that is normally barely noticed. Presences and details do, however, emerge: the legs of a passer-by, a pink-clad figure sitting on the ground in the middle of the square and the darkness of the night giving way to the developing day. Almost like the artist’s alter ego.
The catalogue ends with an essay by Carlo Bertelli on Piazza Duomo and its transformations.
The exhibition is an opportunity to reflect on the different ways we can perceive and relate to architectural and urban contexts, and on the subject of the old square, a collective space par excellence although not always seen as such today.
until 26 Februry 2016
milanopiazzaduomo. Marina Ballo Charmet, Gabriele Basilico
curated by Marco Belpoliti and Danka Giacon
Museo del Novecento, Milan