curators corner: artist spotlight
Silvia Montevecchi
Born in Florence, Italy, in 1994. She studied photography in LABA art academy in Florence, where she grduated in 2018. During her studies she developed an interest for the use of photography as an instrument for self-expression and as a vehicle for a projection of inner realities in the outer world. Now she both works on commission and engages in personal projects, often taking inspiration by the world of literature.
-What are the primary concepts and focus of your art and How do these ideas relate to your medium, and creative process itself?
My art is focused on themes that are central in everybody’s existential though, such as the search for identity, our connection with ephemerality and our way to relate to the chaotic nature of life, themes that I feel the need to deepen in a personal way.My projects arise as visual interpretations of an inner journey, introspective investigations about identity, fears, hidden thoughts and feelings. They flow as representations of the way I relate to these themes and of the way I perceive people around me facing them.Photography is the mean that helps me to set free outward all these internal processes, by creating for them a poetic dimension sited on the boundary between reality and imagination. The photographic medium allows me to be both instinctive and thoughtful in capturing what resonates in me, and to rework it in a personal way.
-Which artists are you inspired and influenced by?
For what concerne the photographic field one of the artists that more influenced my vision is Mario Giacomelli, but also Arno Rafael Minkkinen and Anne Brigman for their approach to self portrait, and Arthur Tress and Duane Michals for their surrealism. But I also like to draw inspiration from painting and literature; some of my works were influenced by the Japanese woodblock print art, my project The state of being light is dedicated to the book Six memos for the next millennium by Italo Calvino, and I find magical realism deeply inspiring.
Which of your works stands out as a highlight, a favorite, or a significant point in your creative growth and development? and why?
The beginning of the creation of the project Embracing Chaos has been a very significant moment of my artistic development. I was passing through a difficult period of creative block; I knew I had something I needed to express, but I couldn’t find the “words”. So one night I decided to try to just let myself go without thinking. I was on the shore of a beautiful lake in Tuscany, and I started playing with light, darkness and movement without thinking about the result. It was a joyful, liberating moment, and after I realized it had allowed me to draw out what I hadn’t been able to express until that time. I understood that the only way for me to talk about chaos was to embrace randomness, mistake and imperfection, and I perceived clearly how sometimes what we need is already inside us, we just need to let go.
What memorable reactions have you had to your work?
One specific reaction comes to my mind. I was exhibiting some works from the project Jisei no ku in one my first shows in Turin; a young man walked into the room, stopped in front of one of my works and in a few moments he started crying. Then he came to me and told me that the photograph he was looking at had echoed something inside him and had moved him to tears. It is a simple reaction, but it was important to me, since it meant I had been able to communicate with him in a deep way without words.
What advice would you give to your younger or older self?
I would tell my younger self to be more self confident, to trust more her instinct and not to let other people have to power to influence her decisions. To my older self I’d tell to experience and to see of the world as much as she can.
What is your artist message, what do you wish to communicate to the viewer?
My art doesn’t have a specific message, but it wishes to convey a sensation to the viewer. We often feel lonely and misunderstood, but one of the things I appreciate the most about art is its ability to remind us the universality of emotions. Art can become carrier of the feeling of who creates it, and make his thoughts and emotions flow towards the viewer. I think this transfer is a silent and mysterious dialogue that allows us to recognize ourselves in the lived experience of one another, to see our sensitivity mirrored in someone else’s view, and to remember that despite time and distance, we are not alone. Through my art I wish to create this kind of emotional dialogue with the viewer.
What is your dream project?
I don’t have a specific dream project in this moment, but in the next future I’d like to experiment more in multimedia art, mixing my photographs with written text, painting and installation, to investigate a multilevel dimension and experience the relation between different means of expression.