ANTONIO BIASIUCCI

Ex-voto

March 2nd - April 28th, 2013

Ex-voto #1, 2007

Ex-voto #3, 2007

Ex-voto #4, 2007

Ex-voto #5, 2007

Ex-voto #7, 2007

Ex-voto #8, 2007

Ex-voto #9, 2007

Ex-voto #11, 2007

Ex-voto #12, 2007

Ex-voto #13, 2007

Ex-voto #15, 2007

Ex-voto #16, 2007

Ex-voto #17, 2007

Ex-voto #21, 2007

Ex-voto #22, 2007

Ex-voto #24, 2007

Ex-voto #25, 2007

Ex-voto #26, 2007

Ex-voto #27, 2007

Ex-voto #28, 2007

Ex-voto #29, 2007

Ex-voto #30, 2007

Ex-voto #31, 2007

Ex-voto #32, 2007

Ex-voto #, 2007

Widely acknowledged as the most gifted genius in contemporary Italian photography, Antonio Biasiucci was born in Dragoni (Caserta) in 1961, the son of a commercial photographer. He published his first book at twenty-three, in 1984, Dove non è mai sera, set in his native village, and five years later his second volume, Vapori, 1989, devoted to the ancestral ritual of  pork slaughtering. Early in the Eighties, he moved to Naples, where he still lives and works. Corpus, his third book, appeared in 1995, anticipating some of the subjects which he would develop further in the following years.  Corpus, as well as Magma, published in 1998, and Vacche, 2000, display a dark, dramatic style, deeply influenced by avant-garde theatre — a primary source of inspiration for Biasiucci. His international reputation took off in the mid-Nineties, with the solo exhibitions held at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, in Lyon, Rennes, and Modena in 1995 and those held in Florence, Urbino and at the Mois de la Photo in Paris the following year. His volcano series was exhibited in Paris in 1998, and then in New York, in Naples, and at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Roma. Published in 2004, Res takes its origin from the war in Kosovo and Serbia. In this work, Biasiucci represent the nightmare of a day-after: a wasted land, populated by mummified animals, their mouths open wide in horrible howls. In December 2009, he exhibited at the Museo Madre in Naples Molti, a series inspired by the tragic shipwrecks in the Mediterranean sea and the thousands of people who drowned in the hope of reaching a more hospitable land. Pani (Bread), was shown at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples in 2011. Always a terrific success, huge solo shows have been organized in the last two years at the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome, in 2012, and at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, in Paris, in 2013, confirming Biasiucci’s worldwide fame as one of the most original minds on the photographic scene.

Completed in 2007, Ex-voto is undoubtedly the most important work by Biasiucci. Composed by thirty-two prints, the portoflio was soon sold out and today it is much sought after by collectors. Paolo Morello Studio Gallery is proud to present the only complete series available for sale, together with some extra unpublished prints. Representing these silver plates in a dramatic, theatrical light, Biasiucci give them back a magical energy: they are not merely objects, but living souls, as they say in Naples, powerful idols, who play an active role in many people’s daily life. A mix of religion, superstition, fear of disease, and familiarity with death lead us back to a world of hundred-year old rituals, irrational, yet not for this less real.

Biasiucci’s works are present in many Museums worldwide, among them: the Istituto nazionale per la grafica, Rome; MAXXI, Rome; PAN Palazzo delle Arti, Naples; MADRE-Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples; Metropolitana of Naples; Galleria Civica of Modena; Museo di fotografia contemporanea Villa Ghirlanda, Cinisello Balsamo (Milano); Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per l’Arte Contemporanea, Guarene (Cuneo); Fondazione Banco di Napoli; Collezione Banca Unicredit, Bologna; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Château d’Eau, Tolouse; Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; Centre de la Photographie, Genève; Fondazione Banca del Gottardo, Lugano; Centre Méditerranéen de la Photographie, Bastia; Galerie Freihausgasse, Villach (Austria); Departamento de investigación y documentación de la Cultura Audiovisual, Puebla (Messico).