Spain - "El Jardin Secreto" by Alessandra Calò
On the occasion of “The Contemporary Art Day”, the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid presents Secret Garden, an installation by Alessandra Calò, artist and photographer based in Reggio Emilia, in Spain with a personal exhibition for the first time.
The artist, who since the beginning of her career has been experimenting the use of new languages to deepen themes related to memory, identity, and to the language of the photography itself, gathers and saves from oblivion old negatives depicting portraits of women without any biographical indication. Inspired by herbariums and in the constant searching for themes relevant to the “feminine,” she creates arboreal visions through those negatives, symbolizing the “secret garden” hidden inside each one of us.
Each portrait acquires a new identity thanks to the involvement of contemporary female authors, who are invited by the artist to write a short story inspired by one of those unknown figures. So, each Secret Garden woman recovers a name and a freely inspired adventure composed by the imagination of an author.
El Jardin Secreto is an exhibition created in conclusion of a path started in 2017, when Alessandra Calò was guested in the Italian Cultural Institute for an artistic residency.
In Madrid too, Alessandra Calò found archives photographic documents (glass negatives) and got in touch with seven Spanish female authors, who have enriched the project.
Beside El Jardin Secreto, the exhibit proposes two other works by Alessandra Caló: Kochan, presented in Paris during the festival of Contemporary Photography Circulations, and Les Inconnues, an unpublished project.