An opportunity, two in fact, to deepen our knowledge of the work of this author who sheds new light on the landscape, the men who inhabit it and the space of the world. The occasion is therefore two exhibitions dedicated to him (as well as two books), which take place almost simultaneously in Parma and Milan and which, in these years when the dematerialization of the image seems to reign, allow us to appreciate the photographs as physical objects to observe and from which to begin an investigation into the creative idea, the subjects, the routes designed by Giovanni Chiaramonte.
The Ape Parma Museumthe cultural and exhibition center of the Fondazione Monteparma, welcomes Giovanni Chiaramonte. Exposition Photography as a measure of the worldwith around 400 photographs: this retrospective aims to give voice to the complex artistic experience of Chiaramonte (who died last year), highlighting his commitment to knowing the world. Chiaramonte’s work is characterized by the concern to capture the intrinsic order of things and the world, placing the elements in perspective and in a measurable space.
It is the intimate knowledge of the rules of vision and the awareness to break them, when and if necessary, that highlights the symbols, traditions and stories inherent in his photographs. The coexistence of a figurative, conceptual dimension and a spiritual quest is the sign of his search for the essence of things, revealing “the light of the divine in the world”.
The exhibition is curated by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, who in 1968 founded the CSAC – Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione of the University of Parma, with a section dedicated to photography, and who brought Chiaramonte closer to the city of Parma. The works on display, representative of the majority of the author’s photographic production, come both from the Fondo Chiaramonte hosted by the CSAC and from photographs donated by the author’s sons to the Fondazione Monteparma.
The exhibition is accompanied by the monograph Giovanni Chiaramonte (https://www.electa.it/en/product/giovanni-chiaramonte-3/) by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle. It also includes an essay by Paolo Barbaro on Chiaramonte’s interest in architecture as a photographer. The volume is part of the new series of Electaphoto monographs, dedicated to photographers and photography: produced in collaboration with the Giovanni Chiaramonte Archives, presents for the first time all the cycles of his photography, from the oldest and least known from the seventies and eighties. to the most famous series on the Italian, European and American landscape, including his mostly unpublished works on Central America.
HAS Milanon the other hand, the exhibition is located at Carlo Maria Martini Diocesan Museuma quite interesting place, where we can see traces of an ancient past. The museum is located in one of the cloisters of the Saint-Eustorgio basilica, which houses an ancient Roman sarcophagus topped with a comet star: according to tradition, it was that of the Three Wise Men. In this context, the exhibition Giovanni Chiaramonte Infinite realismcurated by Corrado Benigni, traces two fundamental decades of the artist’s career, from 1980 to the early 2000s.
The exhibition is made up of 40 images, grouped into three sections-chapters (Italy, Europe, Americas) which retrace Chiaramonte’s research on the different ways of perceiving the landscape and the urban view, which have always been at the center of his photography and his theoretical reflection. An exploration that takes place at the focal points of Western history and identity, starting with Italy, whose landscape, bearing signs of a long stratification of cultures and customs, has become the reading framework for the West, its character and its destiny.
Like a pilgrimage that touches Athens and Rome, passes through Berlin and reaches the Bosphorus and Jerusalem, the photographer has painted a portrait of the remains of the old continent in search of the origins of our civilization. The journey continues in the United States and Central America, with a theoretical reflection on the act of photographing, the nature of the object represented and the act of seeing itself. For Chiaramonte, there is no predetermined point of view from which to observe the landscape. Rather, he believes that it is a place susceptible to different interpretations that follow the dynamics of individual experience.
The title, Infinite Realismrefers to the horizon line, the central element of landscape photography, as well as the multiple possibilities of representation that each landscape contains.
“Giovanni Chiaramonte has always observed reality, accepting it in its entirety. This is why his photographs still speak to us today, helping us to see in reality the signs of something that goes beyond reality itself,” says Nadia Righi, director of the Diocesan Museum. The exhibition also includes a section dedicated to the contribution of Giovanni Chiaramonte to the production of Nuovo Evangeliario Ambrosiano 2011. The exhibition is accompanied by the monograph Giovanni Chiaramonte. Infinite realism(https://www.electa.it/en/product/giovanni-chiaramonte-2/) which was first published in 2022 (last first-person work by the photographer) and which is now reissued by Electa . A fundamental text for understanding Chiaramonte’s contribution to the poetic-conceptual redefinition of the image of the contemporary landscape. Chiaramonte’s “infinite realism” is not just a photographic style, but a way of thinking and imagining the world in its duration and continuity.
Giovanni Chiaramonte. Photography as a measure of the world
From November 10, 2024 to February 9, 2025
APE Parma Museum
Farini road 32/a
43121, Parma
https://www.apeparmamuseo.it/
Giovanni Chiaramonte. Infinite realism
From November 16, 2024 to February 9, 2025
Carlo Maria Martini Diocesan Museum
Piazza Sant’Eustorgio 3
20123 Milan
https://chiostrisanteustorgio.it/
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