An exhibition at the Shoah Memorial tells of the offended world of war, and what survives it, through the photos of Stefano Rosselli: love, everyday life, children and great feelings that remain intact and indelible in the memory even in times of war. On the occasion of the release of UKRAINEvolume published by Feltrinelli with photographs by Stefano Rosselli and texts by Massimo Recalcati, Nobile Agency presents UKRAINEexhibition transposition of the book, scheduled at the Shoah Memorial in Milan until 7 January 2024.
Protagonists of the exhibition, curated by Maria Vittoria Baravelli, are the works created by Rosselli in the three trips organized to Ukraine from February 2023: over 60 color shots that tell the daily life of those who remain, among the torments of war, and indirectly speak to future generations by becoming spokespersons for a universal message that images are able to empathically convey. «Photographic art always plays on a double ridge. On the one hand, photography is pure divertissement. Let's think about cinema, lifestyle, advertising. On the other hand, as in this case, we tell the story of what happens in the world, making us eyewitnesses. The images become messengers of reality that force our will to know” says the curator.
The conflict in Ukraine has seen emblematic images. While curating the exhibition, how many images of the entire conflict passed through your mind?
«For over a century, history has no longer been told by what were called direct and indirect and, in any case, written sources, but through images. The way we perceive what happened has profoundly changed. A photograph acts as a document and tells us something that existed: it is proven proof of a historical fact and inevitably leads us to become eyewitnesses of what happens in the world. In our era we are continually subjected to the hammering of images, in every moment of our day. From television, from social media, from the internet, at work, in free time. We are so stimulated by it that we are addicted to it. We see images of war on the news during lunch and after an initial moment of dizziness we continue to eat our plate of pasta undaunted. We have ended up forgetting that what we see is a story of truth, the reality that someone far from us is experiencing. We are anesthetized.”
What's different about the ones on display?
«When Stefano Rosselli and I started leafing through the photographs he took during his long stays in Ukraine, those images were all-encompassing. For days the war was everywhere. Over a thousand printed photographs, scattered on the floor, on the desks. Everywhere. And every time, for mere reasons of space, we found ourselves having to reduce the choice, it was a disappointment. Because when you deny a photograph to the exhibition and therefore to the public, you are actually choosing not to tell a story. I always like to quote the first Italian photo-journalist, Mario De Biasi, who told us the great facts of history through the magazine Epoca. He said that a photograph is always born twice: when it is produced by the photographer and when we are truly able to remember it; when, therefore, he has taught us something.”
What is the common thread of the photos on display?
«The underlying theme of the exhibition is to show the lives of people in a place where war has crept in. War breaks, destroys, shatters everything and inevitably changes and modifies. Life, habits, places. War bends existences, but it doesn't break everything because there are always those in hell who try to resist. This project was born from an idea by Gabriella Nobile, agent of both the photographer Stefano Rosselli and the writer Massimo Recalcati, who in recent years with her agency Nobile Agency has changed the way of making images and communication, uniting worlds that usually do not speak to each other They. In this case you chose a dialogue between photography and psychoanalysis which developed first in the exhibition and then in a book. Here, with the exhibition at the Memorial, we tried to tell a “double world”, the torment that the conflict imposes, but above all the strength of those who remain. Of those who survive. The life of civilians, the life of soldiers, the life of lovers. Places that, however torn apart, remain spaces in which people still try to find a good reason to stay.”
How did you insert the photos into the Memorial?
«Exhibiting at the Shoah Memorial was a choice dictated by the desire to broaden the message of the photographs even further. At the same time, it implied the necessary need to take into account what that place represents. The large wall on which the word INDIFFERENCE stands out was fundamental for me. We therefore thought of an exhibition that shared the same values with the place; memory, attention towards everything that is human. The urgency of telling and shedding light on what happened, so that it may never happen again in the future. It is precisely following these requests that we thought of the photographs displayed in a row, hanging on the large concrete columns that run in the corridor parallel to the train tracks. If memory is that red thread that binds and tells the things of the world, the photos were displayed exactly like this, one close to the other, literally one attached to the other as if they were stitched, as if they were an unrolled roll of film. To demonstrate how that red thread must be firm and always reinforced. Constantly. Alongside the images which are already expressive in themselves, run the words of Professor Massimo Recalcati, words which are also contained in the book Ukraine, published by Feltrinelli, accompanying the photographs by Stefano Rosselli. For me, memory runs on a double track: the word, the testimony. The exhibition is the union of these two performative languages: through what they show us they change our way of perceiving the world. I always say that through reportage we can experience something. When the retina stumbles upon the facts of History, it actually stumbles upon ethics and produces in us something that perhaps had remained dormant until then: awareness. The story and the image remind us how much the gaze is a cultural question.”
There are words and music as well as images. What weight do the three components have?
«Yes, the exhibition hosts images as well as music and words. This is because together these elements constitute what gives a space, an environment, its complexity, which is synonymous with life. The three components put together allow the viewer to experience a more all-encompassing vision and sharing, experiencing reality through the stimulation of multiple senses.”
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
