martedì 17 febbraio 2015

Art Reportage for Limitless: Sten + Lex

Here's a selection of pictures taken for "Limitless", the new season of  Wunderkammern gallery dedicated to street art. This time, the duo Sten+Lex was invited to create a brand new murales.



Wunderkammern is a gallery based in Torpignattara, Rome, that "exhibits a genre of work inspired by the relation between the personal and the collective space. The gallery and its represented artists explore themes related the marvellous, the paradox, the connection between the inside and the outside, the conventional and the unaccepted, privacy and voyeurism, with a strong influence by 'relational art' and 'public art"






Sten (Rome 1982) and Lex (Taranto, 1982) are among the most internationally recognized Italian street artists today. Included in countless publications, they participated in the Cans Festival in London in 2008, upon invitation by Banksy, and The Nuart Festival in Norway, one of most important street art events in the world. Their works have been shown in prestigious national and international institutions, included in precious private collections and have been held in institutions like the MADRE Museum in Naples, and permanently at the MACRO in Rome.

All pictures  ©Giorgio Coen Cagli-Courtesy Wunderkammern


















All pictures ©Giorgio Coen Cagli/Courtesy Wunderkammern

gcoencagli@hotmail.com

giovedì 15 gennaio 2015

Art Reportage for "Limitless": L'Atlas

Here's a selection of pictures taken for "Limitless", the new season of  Wunderkammern gallery dedicated to street art, with the second artist invited, L'Atlas from France.



Wunderkammern is a gallery based in Torpignattara, Rome, that "exhibits a genre of work inspired by the relation between the personal and the collective space. The gallery and its represented artists explore themes related the marvellous, the paradox, the connection between the inside and the outside, the conventional and the unaccepted, privacy and voyeurism, with a strong influence by 'relational art' and 'public art"




L’Atlas (1978, lives and works in Paris) is one of the most internationally recognized figures of Urban Art, consecrated by prestigious institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, the Palais de Tokyo, the Fondation Cartier and the Grand Palais in Paris. The artist began his journey in the 90s through graffiti, taking the name of the Greek titan Atlas to reflect his global dimension. After spending an extended period between Morocco, Egypt and Syria where he studied with masters of all types of calligraphy, he came to create his own personal typography, which – thanks to the combination of many influences and cultures – aspires to become a universal script. The artist’s references span from archaeology to geography, from astronomy to Greek mythology, from Eastern philosophy to urban architecture. L’Atlas favors geometric abstraction, with direct references to Kinetic Art, Land Art and Optical Art. His typographic, almost abstract pieces create labyrinths and compasses that stand out in public spaces, at times the result of collective performances.


The pictures were taken both on the street and in the gallery, the square pictures are shot on film and scanned from the negative

All pictures ©Giorgio Coen Cagli/Courtesy Wunderkammern






















All pictures ©Giorgio Coen Cagli/Courtesy Wunderkammern

gcoencagli@hotmail.com

domenica 14 dicembre 2014

from the archive: Roma Moderna-Modern Rome

Italiano
"Roma moderna" è un progetto che nasce e si sviluppa con l'intento di documentare il territorio di Roma, città nel quale il fotografo vive e lavora, nei forti contrasti scaturiti dall'attività edilizia abusiva che ha caratterizzato la capitale dagli anni '60 in poi. In particolare, il lavoro, cominciato nella orimavera del 2009, si snoda attraverso fotografie che descrivono l'assurda quotidianeità degli ultimi pastori di Roma, i quali hanno visto il mondo rurale di cui fanno parte essere gradualmente eroso e distrutto dall'espansione urbana perpretata in maniera sconsiderata ed irresponsabile da parte dei "palazzinari" romani. Spinto dunque dalla voglia di mostrare il degrado ambientale di alcuni quartieri della sua città, come Valle Aurelia e Corviale, e il rischio che la città corre di perdere alcuni importanti rilievi archeologici di grande interesse, quale l'acquedotto Romano del Parco dell'Appia Antica, il fotografo ha seguito la vita dei pastori offrendo un punto di vista diverso e allo stesso tempo realistico del processo di urbanizzazione ed espansione cittadina che, tutt'oggi, interessa la città di Roma scovolgendone il territorio, spesso all'insegna di enormi guadagni nelle tasche degli imprenditori edili e a discapito della ricchezza ambientale della capitale. Il titolo del lavoro è un omaggio all'omonimo libro di Italo Insolera che tratta,per l'appunto, l'evoluzione della città di Roma e indaga i rapporti economici e politici che hanno regolato l'espansione della capitale, in maniera spesso poco trasparente e lecita. 

English

The "Modern Rome" project, started in the 2009, is a documentation of the gap beetween the city and the country which has been characterizing some areas of Rome, due to the massive and irresponsible illegal building that has been dramatically changing the city's landscape since the Sixties.
The photographer followed the last families of shepherds of Rome in their absurd quotidianity, as most of them are still living and farming by following their old traditons, while their rural world is disappearing, fastly eroded by the unstoppable and ineluctable urban expansion, most of the time illegaly committed by the so-called "palazzinari", private indivduals or housing corporations linked to the political institutions by common economical interests.
Aiming to show the environmental degradation of some areas of Rome, like Valle Aurelia or Corviale, and the risk to fatally compromise or lose important archeological sites such as the ancient roman waterway in the Appia Antica park, the photographer offered a different and realistic point of view of the city expansion process that nowadays is still concerning Rome, often disrupting the city's territory to the detriment of it's environmental and historical richness and filling the pockets of the building construptors and their political friends with huge earnings.
The title of the project is an homage to the homonymous book by Italo Insolera, who in facts investigated and described the dark economical and political relations that has been leading the growth of Rome in the last half century.


Cliccate su una foto per ingrandire ed avviare la presentazione
Click on a picture to enlarge it and start the slideshow



























Tutte le foto sono scattate a pellicola e scansionate da negativo
All pictures are shot on film and scanned from the negative



gcoencagli@hotmail.com