Jacopo Benassi. Crack
18 July - 29 September 2019
CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia presents, from 18 July to 29 September,the project by Jacopo Benassi (La Spezia, 1970)titledCrack. In the Sala Grandeand the long corridor at CAMERA the 60 images that make up Crack will be displayed,a project that Jacopo Benassi carried out around his reflection on the relationship between the classical and the contemporary bodies and links that individuals establish with people and environments. “Crack,” comments Walter Guadagnini, “is an atlas of the body, elaborated amid the extremes of ancient and contemporary plastic physical flagrance.”The result is the underlining not only of the effects of decadence lying in wait for the human body just as much as for the sculpted one, but perhaps even more so of the scope for the recomposition of fractures, breakage and the charm that even these elements may take on in our reading of the body and the form. This outlook is also underlined by the framing of the single works and the whole, surprising display of the exhibition, which are an integral part of the exhibition project and endow the images with a further vital tension.
The exhibition is produced by Fotografia Europea in Reggio Emilia.
Documenti
Jacopo Benassi
Jacopo Benassi (La Spezia, 1970) trained as an autodidact in the underground environment and within the culture of artistic experimentation in the 1990s. In 2005 he took part in Aphotography at the Changing Role gallery in Naples, and in 2006 – 2007 at Artissima in Turin. Also in 2007 he participated in Vade retro. Arte e omossessualità, da von Gloeden a Pierre et Gilles, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi and Eugenio Viola. In 2009, he was featured at FotoGrafia – Festival Internazionale di Roma. In 2011 he presented a solo show at the Zelle Gallery in Palermo. From 2013 to 2015 he displayed at the Si Fest in Savignano sul Rubicone. In 2017 he presented a photography and performance show titled No Title Yet!along with the Kinkaleri group of performers. His latest personal show is BolognaPortraits, curated by Antonio Grulli at Palazzo Bentivoglio, Bologna (2019). He contributes to various magazines, such as Rolling Stone,GQ, Wired, Riders, 11 Freundeand Crush Fanzine, as well as with the agencies BBDO and 1861 United, which in 2009 published a monumental monograph of his work: The Ecology of Image. In 2010 he took part in No Soul for Sale with Le Dictateur at the Tate Modern in London, an event curated by Maurizio Cattelan and Massimiliano Gioni. At the end of 2016, he published the book Gli aspetti irrilevanti(Mondadori) together with Paolo Sorrentino: the Oscar-winning director created 23 stories based on 23 portraits by Jacopo Benassi. As well as his publishing activities, Benassi became a cultural activist thanks to the programme he implemented at Btomic, the bar he opened in La Spezia in 2011 and closed in 2015, offering music, food & drink, a fanzine and lots of experimentation. In 2011, he also began the project Talkinass Paper and Records, producing magazines and live CDs by artists from the international underground scene. He collaborates with various directors and writers, such as Paolo Sorrentino, Daniele Ciprì, Asia Argento and Maurizio Maggiani.