Mimmo Jodice

Transformations of Vision

XII INTERNATIONAL MONTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN MOSCOW ‘PHOTOBIENNALE 2018’

As part of the Photobiennale 2018 the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents the exhibition ‘Transformations of Vision’.

Mimmo Jodice is a key figure in the history of world photography. His work is characterised by an extraordinary emotionality and energy, organically combining contemporary ideas with classical stylistics. Three of the photographer’s series will be showcased at the MAMM exhibition: ‘Attesa’ (‘Waiting’), ‘Eden’ and ‘Transiti’ (‘Transits’).

In the ‘Attesa’ series Mimmo Jodice reflects on the relativity between categories of time and space. Manmade objects torn from their usual context are frozen according to the photographer’s volition, either in the past or future. Laconic black and white shots invite the viewer into a new dimension located beyond the boundaries of time and space coordinates — the dimension of waiting.

The ‘Eden’ series is a narrative about temptation, the passions and secrets of human consciousness. ‘These pictures are like sensors... They provide an impartial view of obviously inanimate and harmless things that nevertheless have an inexplicable and surprising power over us. By capturing the unexpected compositions that I encountered in the streets and shop windows, I created a still life that became a metaphor and omen for the end of the free, empirical sense of the true nature of things,’ writes Mimmo Jodice.

The ‘Transiti’ series is a dialogue conducted between characters from great master paintings, photographed by Jodice at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, and present-day Neapolitans, whose portraits the photographer took on the city streets. The images are collected in small groups, from diptychs to polyptychs.

When juxtaposing the photographs Mimmo Jodice focused on common gestures, facial features and expressions, emphasizing how little man has changed in the last five centuries.

Mimmo Jodice was born in Naples in 1934 and lives there to this day. He began taking photographs in the 60s. Being self-taught, Jodice experimented a lot, exploring various materials and methods of processing photographs. In 1970 he was invited to give classes at the Neapolitan Academy of Fine Arts, the first higher education institution in Italy to teach photographic art. Jodice taught there until 1994.

Throughout his career Mimmo Jodice has been in close contact with legendary contemporary artists who worked in Naples: Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Gino De Dominicis, Giulio Paolini, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Jannis Kounellis, Hermann Nitsch and others.

Jodice’s first solo photo exhibition was held in 1968 at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, and in 1970 the Galleria il Diaframma in Milan exhibited ‘Dentro Cartelle Ermetiche’ (‘Hidden in Folders’), which was devised from an original concept by well-known Italian screenwriter and film director Cesare Zavattini.

In 1980 Jodice published the photo album ‘Vedute di Napoli’ (‘Views of Naples’), where he traces the change in the photographer’s artistic language — detachment from reality and immersion in an atmosphere of metaphysical memories.

Jodice took part in the exhibition ‘Expression of Human Condition’, held in San Francisco in 1981, along with Diane Arbus, Larry Clark, William Klein and Lisette Model.

In 1985 he began a wide-ranging study of Mediterranean mythology. The result was his book ‘Mediterranean’, published in New York in 1995 by the Aperture Foundation and translated into many languages.

Large-scale exhibitions-anthologies of work by Mimmo Jodice were staged in 2009 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. In 2011 a solo exhibition was held at the Louvre entitled ‘Les Yeux du Louvre’ (‘The Louvre’s Eyes’), and in 2012 Jodice presented his project ‘Sublime Cities’ at the McCord Museum in Montreal. As a mark of gratitude for the photographer’s services, in 2016 the Madre Museum of Contemporary Art in Naples organised ‘Attesa: 1960—2016’, the largest and most comprehensive retrospective of his work so far.

The Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awarded Mimmo Jodice the prestigious Feltrinelli Prize in 2003. He was the first photographer to receive the award. In 2006 the University of Naples Federico II awarded him an honorary doctorate in architecture, and in 2011 the French Minister of Culture granted Mimmo Jodice the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow represented the photographer’s works in the framework of the «Photobiennale 2004», «Photobiennale 2006» and «Fashion and Style in Photography 2011». In 2007 photographs of Mimmo Iodice, included in the Massimo Prelz’s collection «Retrospective of Italian Photography 1930–1970» were exhibited at the Central Exhibition Hall «Manege».