ARCHIVES – FEBRUARY 27, 2024
29 Arts In Progress Gallery presents the exhibition entitled «Lights Up» – Photographs by Gian Paolo Barbieri and Michel Haddi, at the new exhibition space “La Rampa” located in the exclusive and intimate art & design mall «Gallaria Sonne» in Silvaplana, in concomitance with Nomad St. Moritz.
The exhibition presents a highly innovative selection of photographs by Gian Paolo Barbieri, winner of the 2018 Lucie Award for Best International Photographer (Outstanding Achievement in Fashion). It is a style of photography that is at once ironic and sophisticated, both rare and provocative, rich with references to art history, eclectic outdoor sets. Internationally recognised for his trademark black and white shots, his subjects appear almost inaccessible in their sharp sophistication. Using colour, Barbieri recounts his own personal and ironic interpretation of fashion and feminine beauty: the women in the photographs on display free themselves from the more canonical poses of fashion photography instead becoming for the occasion spokeswomen of a new kind of unconventional elegance which reveals a more nonchalant, sensual side.
The exhibition continues with some of the most exemplary images of the French-Algerian photographer Michel Haddi with a career spanning more than 40 years, part of an endless archive of famous faces, top models, icons and legends from the worlds of music and art. From Liza Minelli to David Bowie, from Cameron Diaz to Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie, including shots of Kate Moss and Uma Thurman.
His take is intimate, personal and unconventional, just like much of his career, which is a far cry from that of a classic fashion photographer: having survived a troubled childhood, during which he clung to his dream of becoming a photographer, Haddi has dedicated his life to illustrating some of the key players in the historical and cultural changes of the last Century with a rare ability to capture, and then successfully replicate, the deepest essence of his subjects.
Haddi, which literally translates from the Semitic language as ‘the one who sees’, has succeeded in the difficult task of seeing, precisely, the true nature of the subjects who posed for him in front of his lens – actors, models or ordinary people – and to replicate their image, at times ironically and at other profoundly: all his photographs have a story to tell because they are authentic pictures, which play with the most common human emotions and, precisely for this reason, become indelible.
La Rampa is set to be a space dedicated entirely to art, with singular architectural features enhanced by significant planning interventions, designed by the architect Alexander Bellman of the Gruppo C14 studio, who oversaw the lighting set-up project.
“We immediately want to qualify «La Rampa» as a space for Art, a living and breathing space, a place to disseminate the expression of the changes and transformations under way in this vital segment of culture, i.e. art, which is now hanging in the balance between tradition and innovation more than ever before. With great emphasis on photography as a form of contemporary art undergoing an extraordinary evolution, an area in which our gallery has more than a decade of experience.” – Eugenio Calini, 29 Arts In Progress
Gian Paolo Barbieri & Michel Haddi : Lights Up
from February 24th to March 23rd, 2024
La Rampa
Gallaria Sonne
Via Maistra 21
7513 Silvaplana, Switzerland
www.29artsinprogress.com
