I started working on Mnemosyne in 2023. I wanted to explore the relationship between memory and the photographic medium, questioning the urgent need to document the present amid the physical and mental erosion of time. Memory, left to its own mental devices, is unreliable. Our recollections morph, degrade, and eventually vanish, leaving behind a distorted version of reality. This creates an unsettling sense of loss, as if our past is irretrievably gone, erasing the foundation of our identity: our actions, experiences, and relationships.
Photography offers a deceptive antidote to this anxiety, presenting an ostensibly objective account of the past. It persuades us that life once looked exactly as the image shows, fostering a false sense of security in the "truth" of these captured moments. Yet, such medium imposes its own manipulations and biases: the curated framing, selective focus, and inherent biases of photographic reproduction shape a version of reality as fragmented and fallible as memory itself.
With Mnemosyne #1 & #2, Omaggio a F.B., and the Landscapes series, I wanted to challenge the presumed objectivity of photography by physical intervening in its foundational element - the negative film - making such distortion the main element of the reproduced image.
Omaggio a F.B.
6 photographic prints 45x60cm and 50x60cm. Gilded wood frame 47x62cm and 52x62cm joined to form a front/back triptych.
Mnemosyne #1
5 photographic prints 12x9cm and 40x60cm. Gilded wood frame 62x82cm.
On the first print, I wrote an extract from a conversation I had with the person in the photo. I then copied the text onto the second copy using the previous print as reference, hence unintentional alterations were added. I then modified parts of the print with fire. Each altered version became then the source for the next iteration, and this continued for all the following prints. During the process, the fire marks - alongside the gaps in my memory - increased with each print serving as source for the next one.
MNEMOSYNE #2
Pair of photographic prints 30x20cm.
LANDSCAPES
4 pairs of photographic prints 30x40cm and 30x45cm.
Exhibition
The project was featured in the group exhibition {DE}CONSTRUCT/{RE}CONSTRUCT organised by EIKON Project and showcased in December 2024 in Turin (IT).
