Leonie Purchas

04May08

This time I do not start by a (poor) photo of mine, but from the most important: I love Leonie Purchas!

I tell you the story: there is currently in Rome an international festival of photography, and I went to an exhibition at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. (I am curently @ Rome, but don’t panic, just for a short while; I’m going first to Nice and then to Paris again). In fact, there are currently different exhibitions at the Palazzo, not only the ones of the festival. First, I visited one entitled “The Legend of Speed. Art, Motorization and Society in 20th Century Italy”. Well, frankly, nothing exceptional. Beautiful cars and ugly art pieces, in my opinion. Then I moved to an exhibition by chinese contemporary artists. There were nice things. I liked the pieces of “paper” in bronze by Wang Du and the photographies of Yang Yong and Wang Qinsong. There was also a kind of sculpture representing an angel falling from a singularity of the paradise, which was amusing. Maybe a professional bias.

Then I visited the exhibition dedicated to the Festival of Photography itself. I liked the exhibition by Paolo Woods about chinese workers/businessmen expatriated to Africa (all the photographies can be found in his site, thanks!). I enjoyed also the exhibition by the Czech photographer Lucia Nimcova, which shows the evolution/transition of the socio-political situation in her country, using the photographic archives of her city as well her own photographies.

And I left the best for last.

I knew the work of Leonie Purchas only through her website, and I already find it very interesting. Visiting the exhibition I found it even better than I expected. The immediate comparison which came in my mind was Nan Goldin, which is currently, by far, my favorite photographer. Maybe because of the nature of the work, about the family of Leonie herself, with all the emotional charge which it implies. In the website of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni you can find a description of this work, which I quote below:

[It] concentrates on the life of her mother, Bron, who after the breakdown of her first marriage, twelve years later started a new life with her partner David and their son Jake, moving to an isolated house surrounded by fields and forests. In spite of the years that had past, most of the boxes used for the move had still remained unopened. Bron had fought for years a compulsive obsessive disorder, that with its intricate rules and rituals had resulted in everyday life in heaps of objects piled up all over the place. For many months Leonie tried to help her mother to regain control over her home and her life, trying to express though her photographs the comparison with a world she thought she knew and that continues to reveal itself.

Really great work. I remember specially a picture of Martin (Leonie’s husband) on the verge of tears, Leonie taking one of his hands and the picture at the same time.

Congratulations…!

And, as usual, a photography of mine, taking while I was walking in the center of Rome going to the exhibition.

[Note: I decided to translate the posts in the language of the country is related to. I will therefore translate this post to Italian as soon as possible!]

Filed under: Artist, Italy, Rome   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Leonie Purchas, Lucia Nimcova, Nan Goldin, Paolo Woods, Photo, photography, Roma, Rome, Wang Du, Wang Qinsong, Yang Yong