A n g k o r 2015
Photographs by Patrizia Molinari
curator Manuela De Leonardis
Acta International Roma
22 April 22 – May 22, 2015
Opening Wednesday April 22, 6.30 pm
The exhibition is a series of photographs taken by Patrizia Molinari in January, 2015. The author isolates fragments of the bas-reliefs in the corridor of Angkor Wat’s temple. Like an ancient roll or a modern strip, the stories come alive through the sculptural language depicting angels and demons, female and male divinities, warriors, animals, slaves, and rulers. Molinari is able to capture the depth of emotions expressed in this delicate sandstone carvings using only her iPhone to record the experience
Her photographs are “travel notes” in that they are similar to the diaries of travelers in the 20th century , primarily those of the French naturalist, entomologist, and explorer Henri Mouthot. Each snapshot is a depiction of the artist’s observations. “Torn apart by the poverty of Cambodia, outraged by the destruction carried out by the Khmer Rouge, surrounded by the deafening silence of the West, the beauty of the monuments became for me an even stronger and unequalled emotion,” affirms Patrizia Molinari.
The photographs are printed on Japanese paper which reveals the same magical atmosphere of a darkroom, the moment in which the image surfaces in the liquid and is subsequently developed fully. At the origin of life, the liquid element is always present in the entire poetic work of Patrizia Molinari.
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Born in Senegallia, in the region of Marche, in 1948, Patrizia Molinari lives and works in Rome. She is an Emeritus Professor in Art History at the Academies of Fine Arts in Frosinone, Naples and Rome. She has always dedicated to research on the White and Monochrome, looking at the interaction of light as subject in and of itself.
In her sculptures, Molinari works with Murano glass, industrial glass, steel, and fiber optically lit stones to create large public works (in Rome, in Crotone and in Senigallia). Now Molinari works primarily in photography investigating the same ideas of light, water and the color White, referencing to nature and human orgins. In 2013 Molinari partecipated in the Arte Fiera of Genoa, the Art Athina International Contemporary in Athens, the Present’Art Festival in Shanghai, and the Photissima Art Fair in Turin. Her works are present in Italian museums and important private collections both in Europe and the United States.
ACTA INTERNATIONAL
Giovanna Pennacchi, director
via Panisperna, 82-83
00184 Roma
Tuesday – Saturday 4.30pm – 8.30pm
Tel 064742005
info@actainternational.it