LONDON.- "Geometries/Epiphanies" is the first exhibition of work by the Italian photographer Mario Cresci (b.1941) in the Uk. The selection shows Cresci’s experimental photography practice, which draws inspiration from Pop Art, Conceptual art and Industrial design, and his long-term artistic project documenting the southern Italian town of Matera.
In the early 1970s, Cresci collaborated with the interdisciplinary research group Polis to produce an urban study of Tricarico, a village close to Matera, the territory had become a symbol of southern Italian 'backwardness' in the years following the publication of Carlo Levi’s memoir 'Cristo si è fermato a Eboli'. Cresci was encouraged to use his camera to open dialogues with local residents and give them an opportunity to represent themselves through their histories and traditions, such as farming and craftsmanship. The project resulted in a series of images that continue to be influential in Cresci’s artistic practice to this day. During his many years in Matera, Cresci focused on the region’s material culture, particularly the objects crafted by local artisans, such as tools and hand-carved wooden toys, which the artist interpreted as a portal to the town’s culture, memory, and sentiment.
Cresci also developed his experimental photography techniques in work outside of Matera. In 1968 the artist moved to Rome, where the L’Attico gallery commissioned him to photograph exhibitions of leading figures in the Italian art scene at the time, including Pino Pascali, Jannis Kounellis, Eliseo Mattiacci, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Alighiero Boetti. Here he developed the conviction that photography could no longer be simply exhibited by hanging it on a wall.
Many artists have sought to push photographic language beyond its "traditional" boundaries by engaging with conceptual art and experimentation and in Cresci’s case, he has found new technological alphabets while staying deeply connected to the nature and culture of places—though never in a didactic way. His vision always holds a spark that surprises us and which is capable of offering true epiphanies.
Mario Cresci, born 1942 in Chiavari, Italy, lives and works in Bergamo. Cresci attended the school of Industrial Design in Venice, and currently teaches at the ISIA University in Urbino. He has held solo exhibitions at major museums and institutions including MAXXI, Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Rome; GAM, Galleria d'Arte Moderna and CAMERA, Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Turin; GAMeC, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo.
His work was included in the recent "REVERSING THE EYE, Arte Povera and Beyond 1960-75: Photography, Film, Video"" exhibition at Jeu de Paume, Paris.
Important publications include Matera. Images and Documents (1975), Measurements. Photography and Territory (1979) and Segni Migranti. Storia di grafica e fotografia (2019), winner of the Prix du Livre Historique, at Les Rencontres Arles in 2020.
Luca Fiore is a writer, critic and curator of photography based in Milan, Italy. He is a regular contributor to Aperture, Il Foglio, Domani, Il Giornale dell’Arte and Tracce. He curated the exhibition "Mon cher Abbé Bionaz! Mario Cresci for the Aosta Valley"", at Museo Castello Gamba in Châtillon in 2023.
