T_O

The T_O project includes two large diptychs and an installation of nine smaller images. The photographs were shot on medium format negatives and then digitally post-produced.

In the images, nude figures pose in couples in a barren environment. All portrayed couples are bound by strong relations in real life – carnal bonds such as those between mother and child, siblings, and lovers.

The difference with showing single models in solo frames – which enables the viewer to construct of a one-to-one fantasy relationship with them – is that, with couples, other connotations – the intimate relationship in between the two models – can come to the surface.
The spectator is in this case the third pole in the relationship, at the time of the shooting as well as before the printed artwork. Indeed the project’s name (T_O) suggests a movement in between the numbers 2 and 3.

The naked body in portraiture has always been a strong indicator of its own time, by reflecting its moral standards and how the human body is conceived at a certain moment in history. For many centuries religious/mythological figures in particular – for instance, Adam and Eve – were used in painting as a way to represent the naked body, usually a controversial, prohibited subject.
Today a major code for nudity is that subject to the aesthetics and purposes of advertisement, which today are very invasive. Their impact is detectable at an inner level, and not a mere indicator of a moral (outer) norm. It is indeed unprecedented that such representation is generative of psychological (and, in turn, social) phenomena, performed at such a private and detailed scale.

Conversely, T_O proposes an involved representation of the body, and challenges the spectator to experience and be included in this specific quality of relation. The body here is not kept at a psychological distance by making it aesthetically “correct,” nor by brutalizing it. This welcoming attitude is complicated by moral and representational codes, that emerge anyways. The background itself takes part in this duality, and despite its barren and neutral character, it succeeds nevertheless in becoming a place, surrounding the bodies, like a new type of natural landscape.

T_O was exhibited for the first time at MIA – Milan Image Art Fair, that took place in Milan on May 23-25, 2014. The project was selected by curator Luca Panaro for a special, curated section sponsored by Lavazza, named Lavazza Art Cafe. A dedicated space inside the art fair hosted solo exhibitions by 6 photographers, curated by 3 international curators.

Download the catalog with more images from the T_O project