Zero fotografia

In early December 2012 Steve Bisson, curator and founder of Urbanautica, an online journal of photography and Benetton Foundation brought together Italian photographers Luca Capuano, Laura De Marco, Giuseppe De Mattia, Cristian Guizzo, Milo Montelli, Corrado Piccoli, David Wilson, Mitch Karunaratne (British), David Pollock (Canadian), Kirsten Trippaers (Belgian) and the Spanish researcher Ruben Alonso in a workshop at Casa Luisa and Gaetano Cozzi of Zero Branco (Treviso) to investigate the neighboring agricultural landscape.

This intensive one week’s work has its first public exposure through images and videos in the exhibition “Zero Fotografia”, designed by architect Massimiliano Foytik at spazi Bomben of Treviso.

The title almost provocatively invites the visitor to question the contribution that photography can give to the reading of the landscape and, more generally, to what surrounds us. Each author has developed a theme through a process of personal investigation: the relationship between the types of housing and the environment in which they are placed, memories and traces, the impact of the infrastructure of the highway “Passante”, trees and vegetation, the industrial area, livestock and agricultural crops, fields, water and infrastructure, and finally the roads. These were the threads of research of the ten photographers. Each were called upon to make a contribution as a reflection on the modifications of the landscape between past, present and future with their own style and sensitivity.

«In this sense the workshop» explains Steve Bisson «has developed well beyond the initial expectations, encouraging participants to express their personality and not merely observe at the descriptive level. We are aware that much of what comes to us from the past is not entirely lost, and for this reason it must be witnessed. However let’s not forget the present, who we are, and where we are going, the future. It is essential, therefore, to keep alive our design skills. Each photographer brings his own reading of the assigned theme, an authorial interpretation.»

The images in the exhibition will be supplemented by interviews with the photographers, made during the workshop by the curator Steve Bisson together with the researcher Ruben Alonso and post produced with the support of Elisabetta Tasca. The work was carried out in three distinct phases: beginning, middle and end of the workshop. This material in progress is therefore valuable to observe how the perception of the countryside of Zero Branco has evolved within the participants and consequently the footprint of their photographic project.

until January 12, 2014
Zero Fotografia
Fondazione Benetton Studi e Ricerche
Via Camarotta 7-9, Treviso
curated by Steve Bisson
design: Massimiliano Foytik
layout: Andrea Filippin
video editing: Elisabetta Tasca
photo and video documentation: Ruben Alonso