So near, so far

8 May – 31 July 2016

Collezione Maramotti presents So near, so far, a photography exhibition by Paolo Simonazzi, on the occasion of Fotografia Europea 2016.
The photographer is well known for his research linked to the idea of seriality: he has used his camera lens to explore and investigate a subject, a theme, through time, and in different circumstances and contexts.
The exhibition presents another approach to his work, moving beyond the idea of the series and the “consistent uniformity” of the object being investigated. A view attempting to bring into focus his gaze on our territory, meant as a crossroads of semantic, cultural, language, visual communications, through a series of shots covering twenty years of his work (from the mid-Nineties to 2014).
In our territory one may found a very peculiar osmosis with the rest of the world: objects, words, ways of being together reveal a tension towards an otherness which is re-visited and re-invented while keeping true to a genuinely “local” flavour. Everything looks driven by the awareness and the desire to recognize oneself in an already globalised world, while never foregoing social rituality, the special relationship with time and space bringing and linking one back to solid local roots.

Simonazzi's pictures tell us how what is extraneous, the other, is merging with the domestic, the everyday life in the province, often with a rural flavour; they do not portray kitsch postures, but rather bringing a smile on one's lips for their intrinsic, naive spontaneity.
His photographs move from more rarefied and almost floating visions – where time turns into space in the landscape and images – to images speaking of daily exchanges in a self-assured territory, with a conspiratorial and at the same time ironic look.

The exhibition is a short emotional journey across our country where the road also becomes a stylistic element of the display. The photographs are carefully pinned on an horizontal plane on a mounting looking like a pavement. Visitors are invited to walk alongside it and find one's bearings, as is the case when we take a stroll, or bike or drive leisurely across our countryside.

The exhibition is accompanied by a text by Gina Costa, photography critic and independent curator living and working in Chicago.


Press-clippings selection

A. Fornaciari, Viaggio nell’alterità. Losi & Simonazzi a Reggio Emilia, in "Artribune.com", 12 May 2016