Give Me Yesterday

Osservatorio is a place where trends and expressions in contemporary photography are explored, investigating the constant evolution of this medium and its connections with other disciplines and creative realms.

At a time when photography has become part of the global flow of digital communications, through Osservatorio’s activities Fondazione Prada will question the cultural and social implications of current photographic production and its reception. Fondazione is thus extending the range of tools and approaches through which it interprets and interacts with present times.

The Osservatorio’s inaugural exhibition “Give Me Yesterday” is curated by Francesco Zanot. The show includes more than 50 works by 14 Italian and international artists and explores the use of photography as a personal diary over a period of time ranging from the early 2000s through today. In a context characterized by the pervasive presence of photography devices and an uninterrupted circulation of images produced and shared through digital platforms, a generation of young artists has transformed the photographic diary into a instrument to focus on their own daily lives and intimate, personal rituals.

Familiar with work by artists such as Nan Goldin and Larry Clark in the United States, or Richard Billingham and Wolfgang Tillmans in Europe, the photographers presented in “Give Me Yesterday” turn the immediacy and spontaneity of documentary style into an extreme control over the gaze of those who observe and are observed. This creates a new diary in which instant photography is mixed with exhibition photography, imitating the repetitive cataloguing of the internet and employing the performative component of images to affirm individual or collective identities.

until 12 March 2017
Give me yesterday
curated by Francesco Zanot
Fondazione Prada Osservatorio
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan