Mimmo Jodice, Il compagno di Ulisse, 1992

Mimmo Jodice. Figure del mare (Mimmo Jodice. Figures From The Sea)
A project by Roberta Valtorta
Certosa di San Giacomo, Stanze del Priore, Capri
Period: 10 July – 4 September 2010

Mimmo Jodice (born in Naples in 1934) is one of the masters of Italian contemporary photography and his work is well-recognised at international level. His works on display range from his early experiments on codes, techniques and concepts to the inquiry on social themes in Naples and the south of Italy.

His huge and intense production covers a lapse of more than four decades, all the way through a complex inquiry on the contemporary scenarios of cities around the world, exploring the themes of archaeology, ancient art and Mediterranean cultures and finally landing to the narration of the sea as a place absolu.

Mimmo Jodice, Alba Fucens Angizia, 2008

This show, composed of more than forty works and organized in collaboration with the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo, gathers the latest and deepest reflections of the artist and entwines two key themes: the idea of the sea as a vacuum, a no-scape place, silence and lingering time to be conceived as a reaction to the chaos of contemporary life and the persistence of the past into the present, through the representation of fragments of sculptured bodies and faces as left-overs from the classical age in the Mediterranean civilization, which the sea itself has been in charge of preserving, reshaping and finally returning to us.

In Jodice’s vision, the Mediterranean, the womb and workshop of history and culture, is a lyrical and mental place which allowed his early restless research to develop into the coincidence of images and emotion.

The name of the show, Mimmo Jodice. Figure del mare (Mimmo Jodice. Figures From The Sea), not only refers to the plasticity of ancient faces and bodies returning from the water but also to the sea itself as a source for the artist’s inner thought and vision. An artist who has never intended photography as a descriptive and documentary instrument, Jodice is the promoter of a memory-loaded image, rich in the many art forms, pointing to a metaphysical concept of visible reality.

The photos of Mimmo Jodice on Flickr

The photos of the events on Flickr

Mimmo Jodice – Throughout the 1960s, the photographer turned to anthropological research: from feasts and religious rituals in the south folk culture to healthcare-related and mental issues, to school and imprisonment, to work conditions and social marginalization in the big suburbs around Naples. However, his social photography is not to be labelled as traditional reporting coverage. The intent of the artist is more focussed on the scenario, the masks and the gestures rather than the action and the events taking place. More than telling a story, Jodice’s work is aimed to organizing the visual field and studying the symbolic value of light and the space where his figures stand. A careful observer of art experiments and the language of photography ranges of expression, Jodice has been a groundbreaking photographer since the 1960s as well as an untiring protagonist of the cultural debate which has led to the growth and then to the affirmation of Italian photography worldwide.

Back in the 1970s photography turned into a key instrument for the artist’s social commitment: accusation and creativity have always been the landmarks of his work. In the 1980s the figures and stories of men left the stage with his photographs portraying abandoned cities as metaphysical containers and landscapes drifting into memory and dream. Around the 1990s the artist’s work turned to an elaborate research into the past’s footsteps to be found into the present and the remote roots of the Mediterranean culture. The present is conceived as layers of past things piling up on top of each other, with the landscape becoming a place of memory and the whole work taking on the meaning of a quest for origins.

Jodice made his debut in Milan in 1970 with NUDI DENTRO CARTELLE ERMETICHE at ill Diaframma Gallery, with an introduction by Cesare Zavattini. In 1980 he published VEDUTE DI NAPOLI which marked a turning point in the artist’s language and provided a new expression in urban landscape and architecture. In 1981 he took part in the EXPRESSION OF HUMAN CONDITION, a show by Van Deren Coke at the San Francisco Museum of Art which featured Diana Arbus, Larry Clark, William Klein, Lisette Model. In 1985 he started a long and elaborate research into the myth of the Mediterranean which resulted in MEDITERRANEO, a book published by Aperture (New York City) and a show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia. He has been active part to the international artscape with a number of shows and publications and has been working side by side with cultural institutions and universities for stages and masters. In 2001 the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea of Turin dedicated a big retrospective show to Jodice, whose catalogue was by Piergiovanni Castagnoli. In 2003 the Accademia dei Lincei awarded him with the prestigious ‘Antonio Feltrinelli’ prize – the first ever photography artist to get it. In the same year his name became an entry into the Treccani Encyclopaedia. In 2006 the Università degli Studi Federico II of Naples granted him a Honoris Causa Degree in Architecture.

Some of Jodice’s personal exhibitions have been hosted in the following museums: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995; the Dusseldorf Kunstmuseum, 1996; the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris 1998 and 2010; Palazzo Ducale of Mantua, 1998; the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples 1998; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland 1999; the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna, Rome 2000; Castello di Rivoli, Turin 2000; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Turin 2000; MassArt, Boston 2001; Wakayama, Museum of Modern Art, Japan 2004, the Museum of Photography, Moscow 2004; MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo 2004; MART – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto 2004; the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna 2006; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome 2010.

Roberta Valtorta (Milan, 1952) – A historian and critic of photography, is the scientific director in chief for the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea of Cinisello Balsamo-Milan. She turned to photography in 1976. Since 1984, she has been teaching History and Theory of Photography at the CFP Riccardo Bauer of Milan-ex Umanitaria and has been holding lectures in Udine, Rome and Milan. Her studies imply an artistic research into photography, a key to contemporary landscape as cultural heritage. She has been the curator of many art shows and has published a bunch of theoretical and historical essays, the latest of which feature: 1987-1997 Archivio dello spazio (with A. Sacconi), 1997; Pagine di fotografia italiana, 1900-1998, 1998; La catalogazione della fotografia/La documentazione fotografica dei beni culturali (with G. Guerci and E. Minervini), 2003; E’ contemporanea la fotografia?, 2004; Racconti dal paesaggio. 1984-2004 A vent’anni da Viaggio in Italia, 2004; Volti della fotografia. Scritti sulle trasformazioni di un’arte contemporanea, 2005; Alterazioni. Le materie della fotografia tra analogico e digitale, 2006; Il pensiero dei fotografi. Un percorso nella storia della fotografia dalle origini a oggi, 2008; Fotografia e committenza pubblica. Esperienze storiche e contemporanee, Lupetti, Milan 2009.

The exhibition of Mimmo Jodice, Figure del mare, is organized by the Fondazione Capri in collaboration with Museo Fotografia Contemporanea, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Città di Capri, Comune di Anacapri.

PDF press release Mimmo Jodice (1,5 Mb)

Capri, September 1st, 2009 – How are future lifestyles gong to be? How much of what is taking place today in the world of fashion, design, urban projects, technology will change our life and consumption behaviours? These are some of the answers a number of businessmen, architects, fashion designers, artists, intellectuals and trend forecasters will try to answer at the first edition of Capri Trendwatching Festival which will be held in Capri from October 15th to 17th 2009.

From the trend guru Li Edelkoort to the sci-fi author Bruce Sterling, from the avant-garde designer Walter Van Beirendonck to the ethical entrepreneur Marco Roveda, from the sustainably committed architect Mario Cucinella to the photographer and film director Francesco Jodice, to the streetstyle anthropologist Ted Polhemus: for three days, Capri – a place par excellence for a learned and erudite reflexion, a space for imagination and intellectual design – will be the ideal meeting point for anybody who will want to discuss the present to sketch the outlines of the future.

With the support of the Capri Foundation, this year’s edition of the Festival will be devoted to emergent trends in lifestyles and will be developing over a syllabus of round tables, meetings and lectures. Among the others, the festival will deal with the following issues: “Supergreen”, that is how the “green thought” and the sustainability concept are redefining behaviours and lifestyles; “Daily Aesthetics”- taste and aesthetics as everyday activities leading to a recursive hybridization between arts, fashion and goods, adjusting to a new definition of high and low cultures – and “Urban Signs”, an overview on signals and creative behaviours which are conveying a new meaning to urban areas as places for social expression.

The photos of the events on Flickr | Slideshow

The Capri Trendwatching Festival sets out from the results of the international observatory “Tomorrow Now”, carried out through trendwatching, an ethnographic-based research method aimed at intercepting the evolution of taste and aesthetic next trends influencing social imagery which tomorrow will turn into mass phenomena. The observatory is based on the signals captured by an international field of “urbanwatchers” who have led a ground research in 20 key-cities around the world: Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bangalore, Beijing, Beirut, Berlin, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, London, Johannesburg, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Naples, New York, Paris, Santiago de Chile, Seoul, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tokyo.

At the Capri Trendwatching Festival the results of the observatory will be on a preview display for the visitors to see by a multimedia map desk with the most innovative life style and consumption habits breaking at international level. The main evidence resulting from the observatory, shown by ways of multimedia supports, is meant as the ideal train of thought linking the different stages of the event and the outset for the Festival keyplayers to introduce their idea of future lifestyles.

Participation is free of charge and can be registered on line at the following address:  info@fondazionecapri.org

Logistics and Accommodation: Capri Eventi

Fondazione Capri
The Capri Foundation, constituted in March 2009, sets itself as primary targets: the preservation and the promotion of the artistic, historic and landscape heritage of the island; the production and the circulation of culture across the Capri area and the education and the support of local excellence in different fields. In the will of its Founders, entrepreneurs, businessmen, hoteliers and professionals operating in Capri and Anacapri, chaired by Gianfranco Morgano and Antonio Cacace, with the patronage of Città di Capri and Comune di Anacapri and with the support of Regione Campania, the Capri Foundation’s particular mission is to involve the area and the local people as an active participant in the realization of these activities, with a view to increasing the national and international visibility of the area. What the Foundation intends to do is promote, enhance, and foster the growth of local intellectual and artistic excellence and support them by way of festivals, awards, study grants, foreign study, all standing beside local young people down their path. At the same time, the Foundation aims to promote Capri’s historic and environmental heritage towards a cultural tourism, responding to cultural offers aimed at a collaboration with both public and private, national and international bodies sharing the same objectives. The Island of Capri has been host to a number of personalities from the art, politics, economics and finance world, thus becoming a place for cultural exchange. The Capri Foundation was also born to reconfirm the Island’s vocation as an artistic and cultural workshop and a place for comparison based on the inseparable connection of tourism and culture.

Elena Marinoni
Art curator of the Capri Trendwatching Festival and of “Tomorrow Now”, the observatory the festival is based upon. As a researcher, in 2001 along with Patrizia Martello and Alessia Zampano, she founded Memi, an International Trendwatching Observatory aimed at detecting the unevenness of taste and the expression trends emerging from today imagery through hyperquality etnographical-based research techniques. As a Senior Research Consultant for GPF (Milan), a research institute and strategic consultant on social change, consumption and communication, she has developed a significant experience in the areas of design (home styles), luxury goods, teen cultural goods and advanced retailing. She collaborates in the radio show “Essere e Avere” (=”To be and to have”) on Radio 24. She is a lecturer in Sociology of Consumption and Trendwatching and in Contemporary Design.

The Web Site of Capri Trendwatching Festival

PDF press release Capri Trendwatching Festival (612 kb)

Un Air De Folies - Farandole Philippe

Capri, island of surprising landscapes, capable of captivating emotionally as well as esthetically, rich in natural settings that have always stimulated the imagination of architects and artists, will once again be a backdrop for Beauty. The Fondazione Capri, established in May of this year, opens its season with a grand homage to dance, a discipline that is very popular locally among the young inhabitants of the island.

Inhabiting Beauty plans to bring prominent artists to Capri and to present their performances in sites that are evocative and important in the island’s history and landscape. This first season features an homage to Carolyn Carlson: the great choreographer will perform Giotto and will present Blue Lady, one of her masterpieces, which she danced years ago and is now entrusted to a male dancer; she will also participate in a public discussion. The program concludes with Un Air de Folies, a true baroque festival, with musicians and dancers from the Fêtes Galantes company and the involvement of 10 students from the local dance school. The magnificent Certosa di San Giacomo will be the setting for these evenings. Finally, in response to intense interest on the island, public encounters, lectures and study trips will be organized, with the collaboration of dance critics and historians.

• Saturday, 11 July at the Certosa di San Giacomo: Blue Lady. Choreography by Carolyn Carlson. Performed by Jacky Berger

• Sunday, 12 July at the Certosa: Giotto. Performance created and danced by Carolyn Carlson. Conversation with Carolyn Carlson, organized by Francesca Pedroni (Accademia Teatro alla Scala, critic, Il Manifesto)

• Saturday, 18 July at the Certosa: Un air de Folies. Choreography by Béatrice Massin, music by Marin Marais (Les Folies d’Espagne)

• Wednesday, 29 July: Conversation with Marinella Guatterini (specialist on the esthetics of dance, critic, Il sole 24Ore), with participants in the dance course organized by L’isola Danza

• Thursday, 30 July in collaboration with La Conchiglia bookstore: The ABCs of dance: a century of masterpieces – public discussion with Marinella Guatterini for the presentation of the book L’ABC della danza (Mondadori 2008)

Gigi Cristoforetti
Graduate in History, has devoted himself to live performance, creating projects tied to dance, theater and the contemporary circus. From ’95 to ’98 he created and directed Echi del Mediterraneo (Echoes of the Mediterranean), an interdisciplinary festival devoted to dance, theater, music and the material culture of the countries that border the Mediterranean (different countries each year). From ’98 to 2000 he created and directed the Festival Internazionale Gardadanza. With the Festa internazionale del Circo Contemporaneo in Brescia (2000-2008), he brought this new discipline – a hybrid between dance and circus, quite widespread in Europe – to Italy for the first time. Since 2003 he has directed Torinodanza, with the goal of having the festival be included on international programming circuits.
For these various activities he has received the Premio Hystrio, the Premio dell’Associazione Critici di Teatro and the Premio Danza & Danza. He has written critical texts on dance for various publications, including some for radio and television, and he has collaborated with resident theater companies and Italian festivals.

PDF press release Abitare la Bellezza (404 kb)

The photos of the events on Flickr

Presentation of Capri Foundation

Capri’s Teatro Quisisana – May 23rd 2009, date chosen for the official presentation of the newly inaugurated Fondazione Capri. The principal aims of the foundation are: the promotion of the island’s historical, artistic and environmental heritage; the production and diffusion of culture on the territory of Capri, and the creation and financial support of local sources of excellence in various disciplines.

The founders, hoteliers, professionals, and members of the local business community of Capri and Anacapri, headed by Gianfranco Morgano and Antonio Cacace, with the participation of the town councils of Capri and Anacapri and the contribution of the Campania Region, aim to involve the territory and the local population in the realization of the Foundation’s projects, with the objective of achieving visibility on both a national and international scale. A great number of the foundation’s initiatives will focus on the younger generation of islanders; stimulating, encouraging and developing intellectual and artistic growth by way of a series of festivals, awards, grants, and opportunities to study abroad.

In this context, the foundation intends to promote the island of Capri’s historic and environmental heritage, by encouraging a form of tourism open to cultural initiatives, and the participation of public, private, national and international projects which share similar aims. For centuries, the Island of Capri has represented a place of cultural exchange, offering hospitality to members of the world of art, politics, economics and science. The Fondazione Capri has been created to further affirm the island’s position as a center of artistic exchange, based on the inseparable relationship between tourism and culture.

Contributions by

• Gianfranco Morgano, President Fondazione Capri;
• Antonio Cacace, Vice President Fondazione Capri;

Institutional Greetings

• Claudio Velardi, Assessore al Turismo e ai Beni Culturali della Regione Campania
• Ciro Lembo, Mayor of Capri
• Mario Staiano, Mayor of Anacapri
• Gigi Cristoforetti, curator of Abitare la Bellezza;
• Elena Marinoni, curator of Capri Trendwatching Festival;
• Paola De Polo and Rossella Orlandi, Photography Archives Fratelli Alinari/ Sole 24 ore;
• Arianna Rosica and Massimiliano Scuderi, curators of Travelogue.
• Meeting coordinated by: Paola Saluzzi, journalist Sky Tg24.

The photos of the event on Flickr

This first season’s activities include:

Abitare la bellezza

A contemporary dance project supervised by Gigi Cristoforetti

Period: 11-30 July 2009

Dance is a cosmopolitan and contemporary language, which captures and reflects the interest of the local population, creating a special attraction for international tourism. Abitare la bellezza aims to bring artists of international renown to Capri, hosting performances in sites of great historical and environmental importance on the island. This first production includes a celebration of the career of Carolyn Carlson. The great choreographer will present ‘Giotto’, a brief, recently created, piece, and ‘Blue Lady’, a masterpiece which she danced many years ago, and which is now entrusted to a male interpretor. Carlson will participate in a meeting with the public.

The principal venue for these evenings will be the magnificent natural terrace of Damecuta. The program is completed with Un Air de Folies, a celebration in baroque style, held at the Charter house, with the participation of musicians and dancers from the Fêtes Galantes company. Finally, in response to one of the island’s greatest passions, public meetings, lessons and study journeys will be organized, with the collaboration of dance critics and historians.

Photography at Villa Lysis Dioniso: photos by Wilhelm von Gloedon

Care of Alinari/Sole 24ore Photography Archives

Period: 19 August – October 4th 2009

Part of the exhibition Capri I Luoghi della Parola – Le parole degli dei, in collaboration with the Capri’s La Conchiglia Cultural Association. The exhibition, comprised of 150 photographs, is entirely dedicated to the German photographer Von Gloedon, the creator of world famous images exploring the relationship between man, nature and history. The exhibition is located in Villa Lysis, an early 20th century residence which belonged to the baron and poet, Jacques Fersen, an eccentric aristocrat who frequently offered hospitality to artists and intellectuals visiting or living on the island and whose villa was at the heart of great artistic, political and cultural ferment.

Travelogue

Care of Arianna Rosica and Massimiliano Scuderi

Period: September – October 2009

Travelogue, work in progress, and contemporary art in Capri. For this first phase of the project, which aims to introduce contemporary art to the younger generations, Fondazione Capri will be supporting with the Travelogue Project ‘The Journey’. In this first year the project will be made available to some 200 students, with the co-participation of the Istituto Comprensivo Vincenzo Gemito of Anacapri.

The project plans that young artists from various parts of the world will come to the island and host sculpture, painting, photography and video workshops for both students and teachers. Sandro Chia, who opened the Venice Biennale in June this year, and who is one of the principal interpretors of the international Transavanguarde, will be among the artists participating. The students will learn about the various techniques, but above all will be encouraged to express their creativity, and recount their way of seeing the world by way of their own personal journey. The project will commence in September and conclude in October with an exhibition of the work produced.

Capri Trend-watching Festival

Preview of emerging lifestyle trends – The first observatory of international trend-watching

Period: 15,16,17 October 2009

A preview of emerging trends of expression realized through a series of meetings, lectures and workshops. A two-day event which proposes a multimedia mapping of the innovative lifestyle and consumer trends emerging in 20 key cities in the world, each of which is considered an authentic trend incubator. The various stages of the event will be linked by the results of international research using trend-watching, a form of ethnographic matrix, capable of intercepting aesthetic trends in contemporary society and the discontinuity of taste.

PDF press release Nasce la Fondazione Capri (400 kb)

Capri Foundation

Vision

The Capri Foundation was created as the result of the founding members’ shared desire to preserve and promote the historic, artistic and cultural heritage of Capri and, at the same time, to encourage and foster sources of artistic excellence on the island. The foundation is directly connected with Capri’s long-established history as an international center of artistic exchange, itself a product of the inseparable relationship between culture and tourism, and which is the island’s most powerful motor of economic and social development. The foundation is a private body, composed of businessmen, hoteliers, and retailers who operate in Capri and Anacapri. It enjoys an open dialogue with both private and public, national and international institutions, with which a permanent collaboration is anticipated.

Mission

The Foundation, constituted on February 9th 2009, is a non profit making organization, the primary goal of which is to encourage cultural development on the island of Capri, by way of multidisciplinary educational projects (involving the visual arts, literature, dance, music, and cinema), organized in collaboration with the island’s schools, cultural associations and public administrations. In addition, the Foundation aims to promote the island of Capri and its historic and environmental heritage on both a national and international scale, supporting all those activities which encourage cultural tourism, even in those periods of the year when the island is, traditionally, scarcely populated.

Values

Artistic Freedom. In order to complete its mission, and to ensure the quality of the cultural programs offered, the Capri Foundation supports freedom of artistic expression, regardless of marketplace dynamics.

Respect of the Territory. The Capri Foundation does not consider the territory simply as the context in which the organization’s activities take place, but, above all, as an active participant in, the realization of these activities.

Promotion = Preservation. For the Capri Foundation, the promotion of the historical, architectural and environmental heritage of the island can not be separated from the need to ensure its preservation.

Transparency and collaboration. The Capri Foundation will communicate with transparency it’s aims and welcome every form of collaboration from public and private bodies which share the Foundation’s objectives.

Goals

• To provide educational services, available to the population of Capri and Anacapri with the aim of encouraging cultural awareness and creative expression.

• To encourage and foster the growth of professional, intellectual and artistic excellence on the island by way of awards, study grants, foreign study, and exchanges with international artists.

• To increase cultural tourism to Capri, inserting the island in the dedicated Circuits.

• To involve the local population, encouraging interest in indigenous, national and international culture.

• To increase the visibility, awareness and profile, of the Island.

• To involve national and international cultural partners in joint projects, with the aim of increasing the island’s visibility and of reducing costs.

• To promote the cultural and environmental heritage of the Island, and in particular the lesser known aspects of this heritage.

Strategies

The Capri Foundation intends to meet its objectives and realize its mission by way of a series of multidisciplinary activities, capable of both attracting tourist interest and, at the same time, actively involving the local population. These include:

• Photographic and contemporary art exhibitions,

• Literary reviews,

• Activities which complement and enrich the scholastic educational Curriculum.

• Awards and study grants,

• Dance and theatrical performances complete with workshops open to the Public.

All these events and activities will be arranged with an awareness of both national and international sources of excellence.

PDF press release Mission Statement (380 kb)