«Tales from Vesuvius» at the Magazzini Fotografico

The protagonist of this first appointment is Vesuvius, an omnipresent icon in the Neapolitan culture and landscape, with The mountain from Claire Power (2021) and Vesuvius, 11 July 2017 from Maurice Esposito (2017). The two searches, while remaining united by the subject and the place, a fascinating, mysterious and frightening territory, focus on different levels of investigation and use personal languages ​​and forms.

Claire Power’s Mountain has an anthropological slant: the author has concentrated her research on the rural areas around Vesuvius and Monte Somma, following and photographing the communities that daily live in constant confrontation and contact with the volcanic nature of “‘a Muntagna”, as they define it.

Vesuvio, 11 July 2017 by Maurizio Esposito is a work of transformation and memory. By photographing the devastating effects of the fires that hit Vesuvius in July 2017, Esposito not only opens a reflection on the destructive relationship between man and nature but through those events he reappropriates the relationship of belonging with the place of his origins. In the gesture of taking care of that brutally violated territory, he tries to restore his relationship with it and allows a glimpse of a future rebirth in those ashes, thus triggering a process of transformation of reality that is fundamental in his artistic research.

As the curator Valeria Laureano explains: “The construction of the dialogue between the two works emerges from their juxtaposition in the exhibition space, which becomes the container of an articulated intertwining of stories and sensations different: images of Claire Powerwith mysterious atmospheres, let us imagine propitiatory rites, Dionysian feasts, enigmatic figures that frame the large-scale works of Maurice Esposito and, like the wings of a stage, they gradually accompany us towards the landscapes of woods in which Nature appears as if raped, restoring the image of scenarios which, while maintaining their underlying lyricism, appear silent and desolate battlefields.

If voices, screams, songs, music seem to come from Power’s photographs, mixed with the sounds of an apparently complicit nature, silence prevails in Esposito’s photographs and the soft sounds of an imaginary post-war landscape slowly turning to life. The wind, the rustling of the leaves, the flourishing of the vegetation become “measures of a not indifferent nature which in any case follows its course in regenerating itself despite everything”.

During the period of the exhibition, which will remain under construction until 15 January, collateral events related to the theme will be held: on 12 December 2022 at 6.30 pm, online meeting with photographers Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni in conversation with the photographer Emanuele Occhipinti; on 27 December 2022 at 18:30, face-to-face meeting with John GuggVesuvius anthropologist e John Florentine, president of Sisf and professor of Sociology of communication at the University of Tuscia; on 12 January 2023 at 19:00, screening of the documentary Vesuvius – Or: how they learned to live among volcanoes (2021) by Giovanni Troilo who will be a guest together with Giuseppe Mastrolorenzovolcanologist, e Merry Nellielocation scouting.

“Magazzini Fotografico is in its sixth year of work and these are precisely the proposals and initiatives I intended to support when I founded this space”, says Yvonne De Rosa, founder and art director of APS. “The road is still long but welcoming a dialogue between artists belonging to the new generations of contemporary photography and having their participation in our events represents the future of this association which aims to always have a watchful eye on inclusion and networking in the area: the inclusion of Magazzini Fotografico in the Extramann circuit and our collaboration with the Madre Museum are an example of this”.

Claire Power (Naples, 1989), graduated in English Literature, approaches photography during her studies. Subsequently she obtained a master’s degree in Photography and Urban Cultures and a diploma in Narrative Journalism. In 2021 she finishes the Irregular Laboratory curated by Antonio Biasiucci during which she creates the photographic work “La Montagna”. Her research focuses on the relationship between the environment and its inhabitants, approaching ideas of community, symbolism and collective imagination. Her designs have been exhibited in group exhibitions in Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom. The “La Montagna” project received a special mention at the Urbanautica Institute Awards 2021 and the first prize was awarded to the 14th Jonico Portfolio within the Portfolio Italia 2021 review.

Maurizio Esposito was born in Naples in 1982 where he lives and works. In 2014 she obtained a PhD in Gender studies. In 2015 you took part in the second edition of Antonio Biasiucci’s Irregular Laboratory. In recent years he has exhibited at the Madre museum in Naples (2011), the Forma Foundation in Milan (2011), at the Museum and Certosa di San Martino (2019) Naples, Galleria Fonti in Naples (2019), Roonee 247 fine Arts in Tokyo (2020), the Morra Greco Foundation, Naples (2021). Her works are present in various collections including the Benetton collection and the Cotroneo collection (2017).

Valeria Laureano was born in 1989 in Naples. She trained as a photographer in Rome with a postgraduate Master’s degree. He currently lives and works in Naples where he continues his personal photographic research and collaborates on a regular basis with some non-profit organizations operating in the area such as the Magazzini Fotografico exhibition space founded by Yvonne De Rosa and the Laboratorio Irregolare by Antonio Biasiucci, in which he took part 2018 to 2021.

Magazzini thanks the Bosco de’ Medici Winery and the Antica Cantina Sepe on the occasion of the inaugural evening of 2 December 2022, opening from 6.30 pm, in via San Giovanni in Porta 32 in Naples.