Curating art, narrating reality.
A place where creativity and research meet.
Here are our projects:
Tuesday, October 21, at 6:30 PM Guided tour of the exhibition Un Manifesto senza Dimensioni, a bi-personal show by Cesare Fullone and Cesare Pietroiusti.
The project, conceived specifically for the exhibition space, brings together previously unseen drawings from the series Disegno Incompiuto, created using the technique of fire, which Cesare Pietroiusti offers to the public. Each visitor is invited to take a drawing, with the promise of completing the work — which, as the title suggests, is unfinished — by finishing it entirely through burning. The installation is accompanied by four conceptual maps that serve as captions, prompting reflections on the themes of gift, value, ownership, and interest.
Alongside this project, Cesare Fullone’s work Occidente presents twenty-five small models of boats made of concrete. Starting from the image of an ancient Greek ship — a symbol of classical culture and the roots of our civilization — the work spans centuries of history, leading up to modern vessels, in a journey that narrates the story of the Western world. For the outdoor space, Fullone has also created an installation composed of bread and stones, forming the word paideia: the combination of these two simple yet contrasting materials unites the ideas of knowledge and the transmission of learning, in a work that is both fragile and perishable.
Here is the link to register for the event. Alternatively, you can send an email with the number of participants to the following address: info@metronom.it
Un Manifesto senza Dimensioni
From September 19 to December 14, 2025
Metronom, Via Carteria 10 | 41121 Modena
On the occasion of Festivalfilosofia 2022 and within the framework of the Camera Ludica installation, presented on the Digital Video Wall of Metronom, on Saturday, September 17th at 4:00 PM, Marco De Mutiis will engage in a conversation with Matteo Bittanti about the spread of video games and accessibility to the virtual world. Marcella Manni will moderate and lead the discussion.
With Attention Economy, the aim is to explore – both collectively and individually – aspects of the production and consumption of visual content that are part of the video game experience, with a particular focus on their influence within the artistic context. How does the relationship between the digital and analog environment unfold? What are the consequences of the exponential spread of video games in recent years? De Mutiis and Bittanti will address these and other questions to go beyond stereotypes that stigmatize the gaming world as mere entertainment, highlighting its social and political value, such as its influence on notions of the body, gender issues, and environmental emergencies.
Marco De Mutiis works as a Digital Curator at the Winterthur Museum of Photography. He is currently a PhD researcher at the Center for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University. His research focuses on the relationship between video games and photography. He is also the co-creator, together with Jon Uriarte, of the Screen Walks project, a biweekly live streaming collaborative project that investigates online visual culture and digital images on the web.
Matteo Bittanti is an artist, curator, and academic who studies the curatorial, social, and aesthetic aspects of emerging technologies. He is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at IULM University in Milan and has taught and conducted research at Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
The press kit is avaible here.
Marco De Mutiis, Camera Ludica – A video Game Photography Walkthrough, 2022
As part of Festivalfilosofia 2021, on Saturday, September 18 at 6:00 PM in the Giardini Ducali park, Tamiko Thiel and professor Ingrid Maria Paoletti will engage in a conversation titled Materiale, artificiale immateriale. This discussion will focus on the theoretical implications of Tamiko Thiel’s installation Lend Me Your Face: Go Fake Yourself! Net art between truth and manipulation, highlighting the intersections between materiality and dematerialization. The conversation will be moderated by Marcella Manni.
Tamiko Thiel won the Visionary Pioneer Award in 2018 for her over 35 years of career in the field of media art, creating politically charged works that explore issues of place, space, body, and cultural identity. She was the lead product designer of the AI Connection Machine CM1/CM2 (1986-87) by Danny Hillis, the fastest supercomputer in the world in 1989, which is part of the MoMA collection in New York.
Ingrid Maria Paoletti is a professor of Architecture Technology at the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering, and Built Environment (ABC) at the Politecnico di Milano. She is the founder of the Material Balance Research Lab, co-founder and director of the research unit Actlab, and coordinator of the scientific committee of SAPERLab, at the dABC Laboratory at Politecnico di Milano. Her research focuses on the role of technological innovation in architectural design, particularly in the fields of new construction technologies and the evolution of digital tools to bridge the gap between conceptualization and realization.
On the occasion of Festivalfilosofia 2024, on Saturday, September 14th at 6:00 PM, a meeting will be held in the courtyard of Palazzo Solmi, in Modena, titled I don’t care (about football). Heart and brain, a game to become something different from what you are.
Mario Colucci, Giulia Iacolutti, and Tiziano Possamai will discuss the topic of mental health, which is still burdened by prejudices. Quoting Franco Basaglia, whose 100th birth anniversary is celebrated this year, “to truly address illness, we should be able to encounter it outside institutions, meaning not only outside psychiatric institutions but outside any other institution whose function is to label, codify, and fix individuals into frozen roles.”
This conversation, part of the theoretical research program of Generazione Critica, accompanies the site-specific installation of the same name by Giulia Iacolutti, in collaboration with Nicola Di Croce, at Arena – Spazio Culturale, Viale Tassoni 8, Modena.
Mario Colucci is a psychiatrist working at the Department of Mental Health in Trieste. He is a lecturer at the School of Specialization in Neuropsychology at the University of Trieste and at the Institute for the Clinical of Social Legals in Venice. A Lacanian psychoanalyst, he is also an editor of the journal aut-aut.
Giulia Iacolutti is a visual artist with a degree in Art Economics. She graduated in Photography from the Teatro alla Scala Academy and in Visual Storytelling from the Mayer Foundation. Her work explores human relationships through participatory art projects and includes photography, performance, and moving images. She has exhibited in group and solo shows, including Kunst Meran, PAC, and La Triennale. In 2023, she published *I don’t care (about football)*, which was a finalist for the Author Book Award Arles.
Tiziano Possamai teaches Cultural Anthropology at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts and Art Psychology at the Brera Academy in Milan. He has focused particularly on the relationship between systemic thinking and psychoanalysis, as well as on new forms of contemporary philosophical and psychological reflection. His publications include Inconscio e ripetizione. La fabbrica della soggettività (Milan, 2017) and La pazienza della libertà (Milan, 2023).
Luogo Pazzesco hosts on September 15 and 16, 2023, the site-specific installation Sproverbi (2023) by Orecchie D’Asino. The work consists of an installation and an unreleased video.
Sproverbi originates from an exercise and linguistic experimentation with proverbs: in a new combination, the beginning and the end of different sayings find an unexpected connection, generating observations and thoughts capable of maintaining their initial irony and the aura of mystery that characterizes the communicative and oratorical strength of these popular literary compositions. Orecchie D’Asino transforms Luogo Pazzesco into a village fair: a glass urn will contain slips of paper with reformulations of traditional proverbs, aiming to offer a reinterpretation of forms of popular and widespread communication. The precise statements that typically develop over the years with the goal of offering advice or warnings find in Sproverbi new combinations that, despite changing their original meaning, create new allusions and truths as valid as the original ones.
Orecchie D’Asino defines a dictionary of ‘sproverbi’ (pseudo-proverbs) that each visitor can discover by entering Luogo Pazzesco.
Orecchie D’Asino is a duo formed by Ornella De Carlo (1991) and Federica Porro (1994). Not favoring a single language, the duo continues their research by experimenting with various media, including installation, photography, video, and performance. Among the events they have participated in are festivals such as Cotonfioc Festival (2020), SIFEST OFF (2019), DIVAGO (2019), as well as solo and group exhibitions at Palmera Gallery, Bergen (2023); Bergen Atelier Gruppe (2023); and the Gajani Foundation, Bologna (2022).
Sproverbi
Luogo Pazzesco, Metronom, Via carteria 10,41121, Modena
Luogo Pazzesco presents, from September 16 to 18, 2022, the site-specific installation Tendendo all’estremo ci incontreremo dall’altra parte by Chiara Mecenero.
This work is conceived as a poetic and critical dialogue with the space, where two canine figures, modeled by the artist in clay, are positioned at opposite poles within a field of tension. The sculptures are connected by an imaginary rope, whose force—exerted on their collars—becomes a palpable and visible energy, bent and taut enough to constrict their throats. This tension functions as a spatial metaphor, a measure that defines the boundaries and horizons of a conflict zone, embodying a desire for escape that remains ultimately impossible.
If barriers did not exist, these dogs could undertake an endless journey around the globe, meeting at the antipodal point.
Mecenero’s work invites reflection on the relationship between space, limits, and freedom, using an image that serves as a metaphor for human conditions and social tensions.
Chiara Mecenero, a graduate of the Brera Academy. She’s currently enrolled in the Master’s program in Painting – Visual Arts at the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts, under the mentorship of Caccioni. In 2022, she exhibited as part of ABABO show within the ArtCity Bologna program and completed a residency at Parsec in Bologna, culminating in her solo show Dogwatching.
Tendendo all’estremo ci incontreremo dall’altra parte
Luogo Pazzesco, Metronom, Via carteria 10,41121, Modena
On Tuesday, October 12, 2021, the final day of the exhibition Del resto i costumi cambieranno molto, LUOGO PAZZESCO, the new hotspot of Metronom, will inaugurate with Fuel My Fire, an installation intervention by Niccolò Morgan Gandolfi.
Fuel My Fire is part of the ongoing reflection on the nature of objects explored in the exhibition, renewing the invitation to seek the relational value that defines artistic things. The project clearly expresses the correspondence between the everyday, the functional value of objects, and their ability to spark a dialogue, exchange, or relationship with those who observe them. It involves a bronzed brass lighter, a replica of a common plastic object, made with a durable and noble material, while still retaining its original practical function—generating a flame. Fuel My Fire thus brings the conceptual abstraction from the series Flight Formation to a material level, adding a piece to the magical game of perception.
Niccolò Morgan Gandolfi (Washington D.C., USA, 1983) lives and works in Italy. After attending the Riccardo Bauer photography school in Milan, he graduated in Visual Arts and Performing Arts from IUAV in Venice. In 2010, he lived in Los Angeles, where he developed a photographic research project on the urban nature of the city, recently published by Metropolis Books. He occasionally works as an architectural photographer and has collaborated with various publications, including Domus and Casabella.
Fuel My Fire
Luogo Pazzesco,Metronom, Via carteria 10, 41121, Modena
Beginnings is an exhibition project that presents a selection of works by artists with diverse backgrounds, each offering a completely original interpretation of a rigorous research that employs tools of production, interaction, sharing, and communication—both digital and analog—as the foundation of their practice. The works explore the dichotomy between Artificial and Natural, a key concept in the development of technology and philosophy.
What is the position of objectivity that scientific research and photography can guarantee today, in a fully constructed world where space is entirely modified, shaped, and defined according to the needs and requirements of the human species?
Elena Aya Bundurakis (Crete, Greece, 1988) is a Greek-Japanese artist. She graduated in photography from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Her work combines various media, including photography, drawing, video, and haiku poetry. Recent exhibitions include: UnLust, Artits Unlimited, Bielefeld, DE (2023); Main Show, Athens Photo Festival, Athens, GR (2022).
Mark Dorf (Laconia, USA, 1988) graduated in Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design, then earned a master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His recent research explores perceptions of contemporary society and interaction with the digital domain, urban and architectural environments, and the ‘Natural Landscape.’ Recent exhibitions include: A New Nature, Midnight Moment, Times Square Arts, New York, USA (2023); Translations, Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, GA (2017).
Daniele Marzorati (Cantù, Italy, 1988) earned a Master’s in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies from NABA in Milan. Using photography, painting, and drawing, he focuses his research on the revealing logics generated by the passage of images across different media. Recent solo exhibitions include: Deplacemént, Building, Milan, IT (2019); Crossing line, San Paolo Invest, Monza, IT (2019).
Marit Wolters (Achim, Germany, 1985) attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Wolters primarily works with sculpture and installation, focusing her interventions on the physical and architectural context of the exhibition space. Recent exhibitions include: Plutonics, Red Carpet Room, Vienna, AT (2023); Über das Neue, Belvedere 21, Vienna, AT (2023).
The exhibition is presented on the occasion of Photo Vogue Festival 2023.
Beginnings
From November 15, 2023, to January 7, 2024
NonostanteMarras, via cola di rienzo 8, 20144, Milano
Characteers is the solo exhibition by artist Yelena Yemchuk, hosted at the Nonostante Marras exhibition space in Milan. The show brings together two series of works: a recent body of work (culminating in the publication YYY Depart Pour L’image, 2022), and Ten Years After(2006), created in collaboration with Antonio Marras.
The Characteers series encompasses all the figures that shape and define the artist’s imaginative universe—characters who permeate her representations through painted strokes, costumes, and set design. By breaking disciplinary boundaries, these works are constructed fragment by fragment into a surreal and enigmatic narrative. Moving across various disciplines and artistic languages that characterize Yemchuk’s oeuvre, the exhibition immerses visitors in an imaginary world populated by characters on the edge of reality—protagonists of intertwined stories that cross and blend into one another.
The final image is a kaleidoscope of stories and encounters—a space to fall in love with and lose oneself in the creation of these fantastical lives.
Yelena Yemchuk lives and works in New York. Born in Kyiv (Ukraine), she moved to America at the age of eleven. She studied Visual Arts at Parsons School of Design and later Photography at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Her fashion photography has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Dazed & Confused, AnOther, Numéro, TAR Magazine, The New Yorker, among others.Notable exhibitions include Gidropark, Gitterman Gallery, New York (2011), and Ten Years After, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2006).
This exhibition is presented as part of Photo Vogue Festival 2022
Characteers
From November 18, 2022, to January 8, 2023
NonostanteMarras, via cola di rienzo 8, 20144, Milano
La sicurezza degli oggetti is the solo exhibition by Annabel Elgar, set within the spaces of NonostanteMarras in Milan.
La sicurezza degli oggetti presents a selection of works by Annabel Elgar that trace the central themes of her research and the outcomes of her formal experiments. The exhibition spans from the compositions of forgotten objects in the Refuge series (2008) to the curious, embroidered figures in the Lockdown Cross-Stitch series (2021). The space of NonostanteMarras becomes populated by the characters and stories that Elgar constructs and narrates—an endless, self-generating narrative possibility. These are enigmatic stories that seem to deliberately resist, with grace and irony, any attempt at resolution.
Annabel Elgar (1971) lives and works in London. She holds a Master of Arts in Photography from the Royal College of Art, and her work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions and publications. Recent exhibitions include NUCLEUS – Imagining Science, Noorderlicht Photofestival, Netherlands (2017); Photography is Magic, Aperture Foundation, New York (2016); Setting Out, apexart, New York (2016); Contemporary Photography in North-Western Europe, Fondazione Fotografia, Modena (2015).
The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the 2021 edition of the Photo Vogue Festival.
La sicurezza degli oggetti
NonostanteMarras
Via Cola di Rienzo 8, 20144 Milan
November 17, 2020 – January 10, 2021
On Thursday, April 19, 2018, the finalists’ works of the inaugural ARTIFACT PRIZE will be presented in the historic rooms of Levizzano Castle (Modena). This project is dedicated to contemporary art and invites both Italian and international artists.
The jury responsible for selecting the finalist projects and determining the three winning works consists of: Fabrizia Carabelli (editor, INSIDE ART), Alessandro Carrer (art critic, ISIA Urbino professor), Vittorio Iervese (Professor, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Andrea Losavio (d406 gallery), Marcella Manni (Metronom Cultural Association), Chiara Massimo (Rotary Club Castelvetro di Modena), and Francesco Pozzi (Francesco Pozzi & Soci).
During the opening event, the names of the three winners of the ARTIFACT PRIZE will be announced. These winners will receive two purchase awards and the opportunity to have a solo exhibition curated by Metronom in 2019. A catalog featuring the finalist projects, complete with texts and images, will be produced and presented in September during festivalfilosofia in Modena.
Artifact is a contemporary art project promoted by the Metronom Cultural Association, in collaboration with Francesco Pozzi & Soci and the Municipality of Castelvetro di Modena, with the patronage of the Municipality of Modena and the Rotary Club Castelvetro di Modena.
Muddy Waters is the first Italian solo exhibition by the duo Christto & Andrew, realized in collaboration with NonostanteMarras.
With Muddy Waters Christto & Andrew explore how beauty can be objective through the awareness of ordinary characters and objects. Christto Sanz and Andrew Weir live and work in Doha, inside the Qatar Gulf, but they are not native of the country; the condition of ‘espatriate’ reveals their attention and curiosity on what happens around them, the unexpected changes in economical, social, cultural fields in the city and in the country in which they work and live. This punctual observation was the starting point for their first body of work Unparalleled Objectivity, where they explored the concept of identity and the impact of the globalization in a transition context. Their position of outsider allow their gaze to be non-conventional (and traditional) on the Middle East; the team work permits to develop a complex and shared language, analyzing the photographic medium as a creator of images that stand between the real and the technologically-built world of Qatar.
Featured in the exhibition, some newest works and a selection of pieces by the previous series, providing a trajectory on their expanding career. A limited edition publication with an interview by Alessia Glaviano and Chiara Bardelli Nonino to the artist, will be released for the exhibition. A text by Francesca Alfano Miglietti – curator at NonostanteMarras – will accompany the show.
Christto Sanz (Puerto Rico, 1985) and Andrew Jay Weir (South Africa, 1987) met each other in 2009 in Barcellona, where they both used to study.They currently live and work in Doha, Qatar. Christto & Andrew since the inception of their collaboration in 2012 have exhibited at Katara Art Center, Doha (2014); Espai Tactel, Valencia – Spain (2016), East Wing Gallery, Doha (2016), Unseen Photo Festival, Amsterdam (2016); Museu Nogueira da Silva, Braga – Portugal (2016). Muddy Waters is their first personal exhibition placed in Italy.
The exhibition is presented as part of Photo Vogue Festival, that takes place in Milan from 26 november to 7 January 2017, in collaboration with NonostanteMarras, Milan.
Muddy Waters
NonostanteMarras, Via cola di Rienzo 8, 20144,Milan
The Garden brings together works from several international artists at The Koppel Project, London, in a pop-up exhibition presented by Metronom.
Much like a garden, a space where different species coexist, the artworks create spontaneous connections through shared aspects of their research. Here, the dialogue between the human dimension and nature, identity and various plant organisms, urban environments and greenery finds different forms of expression.
In the work of Christto & Andrew (Christto Sanz – Puerto Rico, 1985; Andrew Weir – South Africa, 1987), nature is presented in its future version—or perhaps distortion—where plant elements are juxtaposed with traces of human society.
Elena Aya Bundurakis (Crete, Greece, 1988) immerses the viewer in microorganisms, depicting substances that are difficult to identify but capable of revealing the hidden aspects of living beings, their most unexpected yet intimate compositions.
Martina della Valle (Florence, 1981) creates vegetal architectures to reflect on the marginal areas of urban vegetation: the artist offers a fresh perspective on the city’s nature, unveiling new species that often go unnoticed.
Mark Dorf (Laconia, USA, 1988) explores the intersections between society, the digital domain, and nature. Focusing on the landscape as a familiar, habitable space, Dorf investigates its numerical translation through digital observers, proposing new, still-unexplored visions.
In the work of Sanna Kannisto (Finland, 1974), we find a naturalistic investigation of animal and plant species. Like a researcher, she offers scientific visualization while simultaneously creating a theatrical stage where birds and plants from the Finnish landscape—her homeland—become the protagonists.
Nature also takes center stage in the work of Tilo&Toni (a duo founded in 2015 in Siegen, Germany), showcasing its immense power and vitality. Drawing on conventions of German Romanticism, their photographic series reinterprets the relationship between man and nature through a contemporary lens.
The Garden | Metronom Pop-up
The Koppel Project
48 Poland Street, London W1F 7ND
3-4 October 2019
Portraits exhibition by the young Japanese artist Kenta Cobayashi will open at Nonostante Marras, curated by Marcella Manni for the Photo Vogue Festival 2019.
The exhibition features a selection of portraits collected by Cobayashi during his nocturnal walks through Tokyo or while traveling. His works are striking images that appear almost scratched, the result of the artist’s exploration of intentional dimensional interference. His act of connecting and interweaving different universes is the synthesis of time and space that Cobayashi conveys in his work. He demonstrates how various layers of reality can be navigated through digital media. The digital manipulation of images, using processing programs, becomes part of his unique visual language. This approach reflects his effort to explore and understand the complexity of the present moment.
Kenta Cobayashi (1992, Tokyo) lives and works in Tokyo, primarily focusing on photography, video, and virtual reality. His aesthetic is rooted in digital imagery, where the pixel and its variations play a central role. Trained at Tokyo Zokei University, he has exhibited in solo shows such as Photographic Universe, Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia (2019); Rapid Eye Movement, IMA Gallery, Tokyo (2019); and #Photo, G/P Gallery, Tokyo (2019). He has also participated in group exhibitions like Photo Playground, Ginza Sony Park, Tokyo (2019).
Portraits
from November 16 to December 21, 2019
At NonostanteMarras, via Cola di Rienzo 8, 20144, Milano
One Flower One Leaf is a workshop by Martina della Valle dedicated to Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement
One Flower One Leaf is a workshop led by artist Martina della Valle, focusing on Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement.
After a brief theoretical introduction, the workshop will continue with the collection of wild plants and flowers from the surrounding environment. Participants will then be invited to create floral compositions under the guidance of Japanese master Satoko Hatayama. Martina della Valle will photograph these compositions, producing a new series of still-life images that will form a limited photographic edition.
The workshop will explore themes such as: the study of natural environments within urban contexts, human intervention on vegetation, and the ability of Ikebana art to highlight details that are usually considered “minor.” The photographic documentation will provide an effective portrait of the urban environment, which will be encapsulated through the plant compositions.
The workshop, supported by the Amsterdam Flower School, will take place on September 18, from 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM, as part of UNSEEN Amsterdam 2018.
Unexpected Neighbors is a solo Exhibition by Martina della Valle at NonostanteMarras, Curated by Marcella Manni
UNEXPECTED NEIGHBORS brings together and retraces the key elements of Martina della Valle’s research, combining her latest series of works that reflect on the themes of urban mapping, through the recovery of urban vegetation, and the relationship between inhabitants and the nature of the land.
One Flower, One Leaf, the artist’s most recent body of work, is an ongoing archive of still-life photographs of Ikebana compositions. Wabi-Sabi, the other set of works presented, is a collection of small diptychs of contact prints, made without intervention or retouching, based on black and white negatives depicting floral compositions found during the artist’s travels in Japan.
The exhibition is presented in the context of the third edition of the Photo Vogue Festival.
Unexpected Neighbors
From 17 November to 3 December 2018
NonostanteMarras, via cola di rienzo 8, 20144, Milan
On the occasion of the Photo Vogue Festival 2025, taking place in Milan from March 6 to 9, Nonostante Marras presents the exhibition Ron Galella:Bellezza per sempre, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
Organized in collaboration with Alberto Damian Gallery (Treviso), which has represented the photographer in Italy since 2018, with Metronom (Modena) and Sime Books (Conegliano), the publisher of the Italian edition of Galella’s most recent book, the exhibition features over 100 photographs by Ron Galella (New York, 1931 – Montville, 2022), renowned for his candid shots of celebrities from cinema, television, music, fashion, as well as politicians, moguls, artists, writers, and cultural innovators.
Ron Galella is recognized as the most famous and influential paparazzo in the world, famously referred to as Andy Warhol’s “favorite photographer.” His signature approach was capturing celebrities in unguarded, unposed moments—raw, intimate, and spontaneous.
His intense dedication to his work came at a high personal cost: Marlon Brando once punched him, breaking his jaw and knocking out five teeth; he was assaulted by Richard Burton’s bodyguards en route to a hotel, and engaged in two legal battles with Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
His signed prints are held in prestigious collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco, Tate Modern in London, and the Helmut Newton Foundation – Museum of Photography in Berlin.
Ron Galella (New York, 1931 – Montville, 2022) was one of the most iconic photographers of his generation. His career began as a U.S. Air Force photographer during the Korean War, before studying photojournalism at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Born and raised in the Bronx, he captured millions of images of every kind of celebrity. Over time, he built the world’s largest archive dedicated to popular culture.
Galella developed a distinctive shooting technique: pre-focusing his camera—taped at a distance of two meters—using a narrow aperture (f/8 or f/11), holding the camera near his chest and watching the subject directly instead of looking through the viewfinder. This method allowed for a unique intimacy with his subjects, resulting in photographs of remarkable immediacy and authenticity.
The exhibition is presented on the occasion of the Photo Vogue Festival 2025.
Ron Galella:Bellezza per sempre
From 8 to 30 March 2025
NonostanteMarras,Via Cola di Rienzo 8,20144,Milan
Since March 21, 2023, Luogo Pazzesco has been hosting the site-specific installation Autoritratto (2022) by Matteo Messori. The artist works on a hybridization of pictorial and sculptural language, creating environmental installations in which the relationship between humans, nature, and art is explored and represented in its stages of materialization. Autoritratto fits within this practice, as painting and matter come together to define both the fragmentation and, at the same time, the unity of human identity. A series of tiles and ceramic pieces are arranged within the space, held together by a layer of blue paint that establishes a new connection between forms and materials, resulting in an organic and cohesive image.
By using discarded materials recovered from a construction site, Autoritratto expresses a spontaneous approach to space and to the very act of creation, building a relational network in which the artist’s identity interacts with reality. Messori’s research focuses on an anthropological perspective, bringing to light hidden identities belonging to an imaginary that is both personal and collective.
Matteo Messori (1993) lives and works between Milan and Reggio Emilia. After graduating in Visual Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Messori has pursued personal research centered on anthropology and the relationships between humans, art, and nature. Over the years, he has exhibited in several solo shows, including Boro, Spazio Miori Showroom, Milan (2022); Roof, Parmeggiani Gallery, Reggio Emilia (2021); Ritual Acts, Ramo Gallery, Como (2021); and Tributo, Vaku Project Space, Bergamo (2019).
Autoritratto
Luogo Pazzesco, Metronom, Via Carteria 10,41121, Modena
