Exhibition: Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller – Chapter 2, The Conflict of Images
Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller
Curated by: Nicoló Degiorgis and Sabine Gamper
Opening: 01.12.2015, 7 pm
Giorgio Di Noto and Monica Haller will be present.
Exhibition: 02.12.2015 – 30.01.2016
In collaboration with: Rorhof
Antipersonnel © Raphaël Dallaporta, courtesy Jean-Kenta Gauthier Gallery, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
As the title suggests, the aim of this exhibition is not merely to present different approaches and practices within documentary photography related to war, but also to reflect on the intrinsic conflict that image making involves, particularly when coupled with the depiction of suffering and pain.
Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto and Monica Haller are the three artists we selected to give rise to such reflections. What they have in common, besides opting for the photographic medium as their main tool of expression, is the fact that they belong to the same generation. All born after 1980, they have experienced the switch between analog and digital photography. Furthermore, the wars and conflicts they came to know have not been happening on the soil of their home countries. Still, all three nations – US, France and Italy – have been involved in several wars abroad. Images of those conflicts, as well as many other ones that flagellate our world, are being increasingly broadcasted, published, exhibited, posted and streamed. Due to the digital age in which we happen to live, the quantity of visual imagery that is produced nowadays is directly related to the expansion of the different media as well as to their technical democratisation. As we often get reminded, an increase in quantity may diminish the quality. But how to quantify quality when we speak about images of war and conflict, or more generally regarding calamities and catastrophes? A possible response would be to judge the quality based on the amount of reactions aroused or of shock inflicted. In this view, the recent image of the Syrian child stranded on the Turkish beach can be seen as an extremely powerful picture, since it triggered indignation amongst European’s, particularly in Germany and was followed by military interventions in Syria; or the videos posted by the Tunisian photographer and blogger Mounir Chelbi of the town of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia, posted across Facebook as well as broadcasted by al-Jazeera, that fanned off the flames of the Arab Spring in 2010.
Giorgio Di Noto, The Arab Revolt, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Giorgio Di Noto, The Arab Revolt, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Giorgio Di Noto, The Arab Revolt, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Giorgio Di Noto, The Arab Revolt, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Giorgio Di Noto, The Arab Revolt, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
The work of Giorgio Di Noto revolves precisely around the amateur videos that document the various insurrections, and the subsequent revolutions, that happened in north Africa. Entitled The Arab Revolt and composed of a series of 30 polaroids that he took from his computer screen while streaming those videos, these images raise a whole variety of questions. Photography plays a crucial role in our memory. As Susan Sontag puts it, “The problem is not that people remember through photographs, but that they remember only the photographs.” And Di Noto’s work is an attempt to consolidate the hectic flood of images that on a daily basis saturate our lives. By turning moving images into stills, while at the same time translating digital onto analog, his work meditates on the role of photojournalism, and the photojournalist in particular. He questions the role of the photographer not to be merely a professional on the ground to document a conflict, but also to work beyond the immediateness and with pre-existing material, in order to induce the viewer to a more reflective engagement.
Antipersonnel © Raphaël Dallaporta, courtesy Jean-Kenta Gauthier Gallery, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Antipersonnel © Raphaël Dallaporta, courtesy Jean-Kenta Gauthier Gallery, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Antipersonnel © Raphaël Dallaporta, courtesy Jean-Kenta Gauthier Gallery, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Antipersonnel © Raphaël Dallaporta, courtesy Jean-Kenta Gauthier Gallery, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Raphaël Dallaporta is a French artist whose work addresses human rights as well as more symbolic subjects such as the fragility of life. He presents us a compelling archive of 35 land mines called Antipersonnel. Photographed as if they were luxurious objects, and accompanied by detailed captioning, these images create a short circuit in the viewer, who is pushed to question the aesthetic appeal of the design of such dangerous and harmful objects.
Monika Haller, eterans Book Project, Book by Zainab Jawhar, 2010, spread, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Monika Haller, eterans Book Project, Book by Juliet Madsen, 2011, spread, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Monika Haller, eterans Book Project, Book by Juliet Madsen, 2011, spread, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Monika Haller, eterans Book Project, Book by Pamela Olson, 2010 spread, Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016
Monica Haller’s set of books, entitled Veterans Book Project, depicts not only the atrocities but also the daily life of US soldiers and individuals who have experienced the recent American-led wars. Through a series of thirteen workshops held between 2009 and 2014, the participants produced over 50 books that Haller edited and curated. Here we realise the importance of the editor and curator within photography, as well as its therapeutic possibilities. The choice of condensing their testimonies into books, rather than being displayed as videos or prints, is crucial due to the harshness of the images. By doing so, the shock effect of such graphic material does not overwhelm the viewer, but on the contrary he is invited to immerse privately into the stories and to linger over the pictures up to the degree that they find bearable.
Despite their young age, or maybe precisely because of it, Dallaporta, Di Noto and Haller demonstrate us to be acquainted with the image overflow we face day by day, as well as with the disputes concerning ethics
and aesthetics within photography. Their works are neither naive nor cynical. They show us how to relate visually with highly sensitive subjects in a profound manner.
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Raphaël Dallaporta, Giorgio Di Noto, Monica Haller, exhibition at foto-forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) 02.12.2015-30.01.2016, exhibition view: Claudia Corrent, foto-forum
Chapter 2 – The Conflict of Images, Opening, Giorgio di Noto, Sabine Gamper, Monica Haller, Nicolò Degiorgis, foto forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), credit: foto forum, Claudia Corrent