Presentations

“Ritratti dalla Strada” – Salvatore Matarazzo / “Tornare” – Mariagrazia Beruffi / “My Town Siófok II” – Marietta Varga

Sala Xenia
Riva Tre Novembre / Angolo Via Mazzini - Trieste

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Friday 25 October 2019
12.00 - 12.45

Opening of the triple solo exhibition at Sala Xenia, the main venue of the festival, presented by Art Director Angelo Cucchetto

Tornare (Coming back) – Mariagrazia Beruffi

“I am confused, I do not know if it is the eyes that look at my country still in the picture or if it is the mind that pursues the everlasting image that I have inside”.
So she says as she looks at a picture hanging in a restaurant where we make a stop.
It was a special day when Aldo decided to go back to his house. Everything has been left as it was in Strugnano since February 1947, when Istria was ceded to the former Yugoslavia and with Bianca, his wife, he left home forever.
A broken window, a courtyard, the wall in front of it, nothing looks like his house anymore. Flash memories bring to mind the childhood and youth lived among those walls full of cracks and spider webs. But also the disappearances, the foibe and the fear that led them to flee to an uncertain future.
They silently relive their past, because the story can not emotionally involve those who have not seen, heard and cried. “It is a memory, that of Istria, destined to survive, in the minds of those who no longer reside there, for the fleeting moment of a single generation, the only one left”.
(Eugenio Scalfari from the preface to Gianni Giuricin’s book “Istria maledetta”)
Translating their memories into images was a bit like profaning their most intimate feelings and for this I thank Bianca and Aldo Paoli for their great willingness to relive those moments that also belonged to other 300,000 Istrian exiles spread throughout the world.

Ritratti dalla Strada – Salvatore Matarazzo

“Stop! I want to take a picture of you” I exclaim in a loud and decisive voice before doing a “Portrait From The Road”. I don’t leave the time to reason to the subject, it’s a matter of moments, as long as I keep him in a situation of indecision, curiosity and overtaking I can afford to guide the situation.
An instant later is too much, the subject could raise the mask and would no longer be a “Portrait From The Road”.
My subjects are ordinary but often extravagant people. I like the fascination of risk and voyeurism implicit in the act of photographing. I look at a thousand faces and I choose some, for me the street is a Reality Show, social and technology have freed photography from many ancient and archaic stereotypes, each person is ready to perform and be photographed just a little push and it can happen with a compliment, an appreciation or even just: “Stop there” and immediately arrive the “15 minutes of celebrity”, they do not know who I am and I’m watching well from saying, I could be a director who has to shoot a film, or a broker of new faces that will make them famous, I could be a director who has to shoot a movie, or a broker of new faces that will make them famous, the social and technology have freed the photograph from many ancient and archaic stereotypes, each person is ready to perform and be photographed just a little push and can be done with a compliment, an appreciation or even just: “Stop there” and immediately arrive the “15 minutes of celebrity”. But I don’t use deception, I simply take advantage of current times, the media but especially television and lately the Internet give the global perception that from one moment to the next everyone can become famous. I place myself here between reality and fantasy and I never reveal who I am until after the shot.
It’s about my continuous experimenting with actions and reactions to the photographer and to photography in a dry, sudden and daring way, I love to point out that the subject knows that he is about to be photographed.
The Portraits From the Road could be a social experiment, a sort of “black mirror” where the observer can look for himself in someone else’s face, find similarities and compare himself. Cynical images that tell the story of the contemporary, without too many games and deceptions but with a nihilistic and cynical vision that manages to create an aesthetic of its own.

My Town Siófok II – Marietta Varga
Rarely does something in reality look the same as in our memories. This morning was the first time in a long time that I was able to see my home town precisely as it exists in my mind.
The small town where I grew up is called Siófok,- in Hungary- it’s right on the lake shore of Balaton, the largest lake in Central-Europe.
It’s often called the summer capital of the country due to its touristic position, with 25.000 inhabitants which in summer is often going up sevenfold.
For most people Siófok is only known as their holiday place, with the blue lake and happy summer moments, however those who grow up here can see the town in an entirely different way.
The places and things important to me are totally different than those liked and remembered by the tourists, and I feel that this is how it should be. I left this place 10 years ago, and every time I return I feel a deep nostalgia.
I think that growing up here, and being a local, is a lucky situation as it enables me to show this place in an unusual and unexpected context.