NICOLÒ DEGIORGIS

Alibaba e Il rifiuto dell’oro

In the centre of Favignana, on the walls surrounding the old castle that currently serves as a prison, a large piece of graffiti welcomes visitors: “Please keep the island clean.”

Taking this soundlessly shouted message to heart, I wanted to reflect on the meaning of an artist’s residency, the value of documentation, and the artist’s (rather than man’s) impact on the balance of an ecosystem. Thus Il rifiuto dell’oro was born, characterized by the act of collecting waste deposited on the shores of Europe, with a focus on the colour blue.

Il rifiuto dell’oro is presented here alongside the work Alibaba, a vast collection of small images of colourful rubber dinghies. They come from the website www.alibaba.com, which sold the dinghies until a heated debate in European newspapers led to their removal. The dinghies were advertised as specially designed to transport refugees. 

BIO

Nicolò Degiorgis (Bolzano, Italy, 1985) runs Rorhof, an independent publishing house, and teaches at the Penitential Institute of Bolzano. His works comprise books, photos, collages, videos, maps, documents and installations that chart conceptually the territory and the communities where he lives.
He graduated from the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University Venice. He was the recipient of a Fabrica scholarship in Treviso and a research fellowship from the Faculty of Political and Social Science at the University of Trieste. His works were exhibited at Maxxi, XVI Quadriennale d’arte in Rome, the Pinakothek der Moderne – Munich, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo- Turin, Mambo – Bologna, Museion – Bolzano. His books are to be found in private and public libraries, including Metropolitan Museum in New York, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library at Yale University, the Library of Harvard University, Tate Modern – London, Kandinsky Library – Centre Pompidou in Paris, Albertina Museum – Vienna. They were awarded the Author Book of the Year at the Rencontres d’Arles 2014, the Aperture Paris Photo First Book Award 2014, Gold at the German Photobook Awards 2014, the Italian Photobook Award – Premio Bastianelli 2018, the Historical Book Award at the Rencontres d’Arles 2018.
Before teaching Publishing as Artistic Practice at FMAV in Modena and photography at the Penitential Institute of Bolzano, he was professor of artistic photography at the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Bolzano.

WITH THE SUPPORT OF DGCC – Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della cultura (Project“Imaginarium: new productions and experiments in contemporary Italian photography”)