VALENTINA VANNICOLA
Terra cava
The work is based on a reflection by the anthropologist and paleontologist André Leroi-Gourhan on the mythographic modes of representation identified in the graphic manifestations of the Paleolithic period, where a mythogram is understood as an image in which several elements are arranged in a “radiating” space, in which the figures are the protagonists of a mythological operation. An example of this graphic-linguistic manifestation can be found in the Egadi Islands, specifically in the cave of Cala dei Genovesi, which houses a complex of prehistoric wall paintings of fundamental importance.
This suggestion is part of the observation of the landscape of the Egadi Islands, and of Favignana in particular, characterized by a strong hypogean structure, where caves, sinkholes, quarries and erosion follow one another; and it is here, between darkness and light, fullness and emptiness, that Valentina Vannicola’s images are staged, where the figures evoke, through a new iconographic reinterpretation, the symbolic characters of the ancient cave paintings. In a contemporary mythogram, the figures disappear or emerge from the landscape, merging with it and performing in it the magical act of capturing and radiating light, the dazzling element of an island full of disturbing shadows.
Terra cava is an unpublished work created in residence thanks to the project Imaginarium, winner of the public grant StrategiaFotografia2022.
BIO
Valentina Vannicola (Rome, 1982), graduated in theory of cinema at “La Sapienza” University of Rome, conducts research focused on the relationship between literature and photography and, more generally, on photography’s ability to give shape to stories. Her artistic practice can be traced back to the genre of staged photography. Her work has been exhibited in several museums, galleries and festivals in Italy and abroad: MAXXI Museum, Rome; MAAT Museum, Lisbon; Centro Cultural de Justiça Federal, Rio de Janeiro; IIC of La Valletta, Malta; Casa do Design of Matosinhos, Portugal; COAM with the IIC of Madrid; CLB Berlin with IIC of Berlin; Museum; IIC and Head On Photo Festival, Sydney, Australia; Palazzo Ducale of Genoa; Festival Circulation(s) in Paris; Triennale of Milan; Espace André Malraux Herblay, France; IIC of Melbourne; Gallery Central in Perth; Wunderkammern gallery, Rome; S.t. gallery, Rome; Auditorium Arte, Roma; Fotografia Festival at Museo MACRO. Her images have been published in magazines, books and they are in public and private collections.