Explosion!!!

For Andrea Botto photographing explosions has been an ongoing focus since 2008. It is both stimulating and fructifying to present these works in the programme of an art space for contemporary photography. Botto’s work offers a kind of culmination point in which many of photography’s key functions and strengths converge: What we are presented with is landscape photography, a classic subject of the medium. Botto’s works show photographic technology at its essence, in the capturing of an unreproducible moment that would otherwise elude our perception. And, of course, his photos are also documentations, the visual recording of the historical events a community of individuals would like to remember for generations.

© Andrea Botto, KA-BOOM #67, Ponte Morandi, Genova 2019

Upon closer inspection of the photos, however, we immediately realise that they are not being witnessed from a distance. The landscape becomes the photo studio and the staged subject at once, and the artist’s work reflects the processes of both change and dissolution. In conjunction with the INN SITU series, the artist was invited to continue his work series in the Tyrol/Vorarlberg region. Among other things, a series of new works with avalanche experts in the field and an examination of the Tirol Panorama in Innsbruck with its more than 1,000 m² cyclorama of the third Battle of Bergisel in 1809 were created.

© Andrea Botto, Silvretta Montafon 04 2022

Andrea Botto

(*1973 in Rapallo, Liguria) studied photography at the IED – Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin. His projects have been acknowledged by grants and awards and have been exhibited in international museums, including the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn (2005), the Fotomuseum Winterthur (2005), the SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne (2006), the MAXXI Museum in Rome (2007/2016/2021), the Fundación Canal in Madrid (2007), the MoCA in Shanghai (2010), the Villa Croce in Genoa and the Benaki Museum in Athens (2015). Along with his artistic research, Botto gives lectures and educational workshops, and he has been in charge of several cultural projects. He is currently professor of Documentary Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Genoa, and he is one of the founding members of the art collective Fotoromanzo Italiano.

His works are to be found in private and public collections, including the Bibliothéque Nationale de France in Paris, the MAXXI in Rome, the MuFoCo in Milan, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the FMAV in Modena and the GAM in Turin. His publications include the highly acclaimed “19.06_26.08.1945” (Danilo Montanari, Ravenna 2014), which won third prize in the Kassel Dummy Award competition at the Fotobookfestival (Kassel) and was shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture First PhotoBook Award; “KA-BOOM The Explosion of Landscape” (Èditions Bessard, Paris 2017), a fictional blasting manual, shortlisted for the Photo Text Book Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles; “Reviviscence. A Bridge Over Genoa” (Rizzoli, New York 2020), about the demolition and construction site following the collapse of the Morandi Bridge.

The dialogue took place on Thursday 6 October at 7 p.m.

Review:

Echoes of the exhibition from various fields of expertise. The dramaturgical triad of the INN SITU series was rounded off with an accompanying dialogue format. We invited experts from the fields of science, culture and music to respond to the exhibition. In doing so, we experimented with new formats of exchange. (Im Bild Transdisciplinary dialogue in response to the exhibition PORTRAITS IN MOTION).

Each of the speakers chose a picture from the exhibition and discusses it with the artist Volker Gerling before an audience. An open dialogue between various perspectives, with music and inspired by the exhibition.

Konstanze Zwintz

© Bechyna

is an astrophysicist and specialist on the explosion as the beginning of the world. Konstanze Zwintz first took interest in young stars as a student. Back then she was a pioneer in this new field; today she is among the leading experts. She is currently a professor for Stellar Astrophysics at the University of Innsbruck, a position she has held since 2018.

© Franz Oss

Andreas Ambrosi, Brenner Base Tunnel BBT SE

is the press officer for the project company BBT SE. As such he has been responsible for the areas of public relations, media relations and stakeholder management since 2017. He has held various positions in the press and public relations divisions of different companies, including Swarovski International PR, Tyrolean state government, the City of Innsbruck and the APA – Austria Presse Agency in Tyrol and Vienna.

Hubert Matt

© Hubert Matt

studied philosophy and art history. One of his main focuses is on strategies of performance in art and media. He works as a visual artist and researcher and teaches Perception, Culture, Design and Theory, among other courses, in the degree programme InterMedia at the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences. His work has appeared in numerous exhibitions in Austria and abroad, and his exhibition design and texts on and for artists also have an international scope.

Isa Kurz, piano, and Bernhard Schimpelsberger, percussion

© Isa Kurz

© Gui Sussekind

The multi-instrumentalist Isa Kurz is featured in the musical part of this INN SITU theme. In conjunction with the dialogue of the panel of experts she will improvise ­on the grand piano – joined by Bernhard Schimpelsberger, who will be playing various percussion instruments.