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Antonio Biasiucci

Musei Civici - Palazzo San Francesco
30 April - 7 June 2009
a curated by Laura Serani

 

EX VOTO

If I had not visited the chapel dedicated to Giuseppe Moscati in the Gesù Nuovo Church in Naples, I would probably never have decided to photograph votive offerings; it is that very peculiar, almost absurd place, in which hundred of small frames are hung on the walls, each one of them containing a story, made with small silver panels which in this context become the synthesis and essence of every human event. The “graced” are the ones who offer their enigmatic story to the saint, turning the panels into the components of a strange acting company devoted to an essential theatre of life.  And it is by acting together that each of us can find oneself and become one with the place. My exhibition on votive offerings has become a highly autobiographical research, in which the symbols of the offerings stand for the episodes of a life gone by, and the book itself for a votive offering.... (Antonio Biasiucci)

BIOGRAPHY

Antonio Biasiucci was born in Dragoni (Caserta) in 1961. His was first interested in anthropological photography and the Campania farming community, to which he dedicated numerous works. He moved to Naples in 1980 where he began to work on the areas in the outskirts of the city. In 1984 he began to collaborate with the ‘Osservatorio Vesuviano’, carrying out in-depth documentary research into active volcanoes in Italy. In 1987 he met Antonio Neiwiller, theatre actor and director: the collaboration between the two continued until 1993, the year of Neiwiller’s death. In 1992 in Arles he won the "European Kodak Panorama" prize. Right from the start of his career, the roots of his work have always lain in the issues of Italian and southern Italian culture, and recently have transformed into a journey into the primary elements of existence and personal memory.
Many of his works are included in the permanent collections of museums and institutions, including the Mediterranean Centre of Photography and the National Library in Paris, the ‘Department of audiovisual culture documentation’ in Puebla, Mexico, the ‘Centre of Photography’ in Geneva, Château d'Eau in Toulouse, the ‘Maison Européenne de la Photographie’ in Paris, the ‘Fondazione Banca del Gottardo’ in Lugano, the Elysée Museum in Lausanne, the Civic Gallery in Modena, the Fondazione Banco in Naples, the ‘Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per l'Arte Contemporanea’ in Guarene (CN), the Freihausgasse Gallery in Villach, Austria, the Italian State Chalcography in Rome, the PAN-Palazzo delle Arti, Naples, and the Unicredit Bank Collection. He has received several important recognitions: the latest for his work Res: Lo stato delle cose, published in 2004, include the “Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Awards” won in London in March 2005 and the “Premio Bastianelli” won in Rome in April 2005.

PHOTOGALLERY


INFORMATION

Info
Musei Civici - Palazzo San Francesco
via Spallanzani 1 - Reggio Emilia
tel. 0522 451152 - 456249
 
Hours
Opening 30 April at 18.00
From 1 to 3 May from 10.00 to 23.00
From 5 May to 7 June: from Tuesdays to Fridays from 18.00 to 23.00; Saturdays, Sundays and festivals from 10.00 to 23.00