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10/2/2011

Density of Silence

Rosphoto State Russian Center for Photography, St. Petersburg

curator Andrey Martynov

The current show in the main exhibition hall of the State Centre of Photography unites works of two well known Italian photographers, masters of landscape, Frank Dituri and Elio Ciol.

Elio Ciol (born in 1929) has been shooting same places in black and white for over half a year: Assisi in the province of Perugia and its surroundings. Assisi under snow drifts, in a fog, in winter and in summer. In Elio Ciol's photographs, arcades, stairs, curves of empty streets, ancient walls drenched in the sun and casting fanciful shadows, stand next to panoramic views. Like pieces of mosaic, these images come together to form a harmonious view of the world loved by the photographer. According to writer Carlo Sgorlon, “Ciol, as many others, is attached to his Penates and his culture, his feeling toward them being similar to religious. Therefore, this place for him is not only the starting point, but also the point of return. Its theme is most closely connected with the artists' religious and philosophical views that fund each of his works”. Using infrared filters that allow him to achieve unusual effects, Ciol often lends dramatic sound to the “silence” of his uninhabited landscapes.

The works of Frank Dituri (born in 1946) reveal the aspiration of creating images existing beyond time. Italian by descent, Frank Dituri was brought up and became photographer in New-York. His works were displayed in scores of galleries and museums all over the world and published repeatedly in important photographic editions. Having been fascinated by one of Giorgio de Chirico's most enigmatic works, Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, he seeks to create a similar feeling of space and time in his monochromatic images inhabited by blurred silhouettes of trees, buildings and people. Dituri claims that “combination of visible reality and its psychological underpinning is absolutely essential for any work of art”. Teetering on the edge of the real and the surreal, the obvious and the concealed, the author encourages viewers to guess, conjecture and imagine.

Frank Dituri's fragmentary compositions reveal the author's interest to the heritage of the Pictorialists, a certain recovery of their artistic methods. The author's impressionistic images are penetrated with his deeply personal attitude to his objects, his main character being the “feeling” - changeable and elusive, existing only here and now. On the contrary, Elio Ciol's photographs are academically austere. The nature is shown here magnificent and unapproachable. There is no place for humans in it, and the ancient buildings are the only inhabitants of this world where the time and tradition can be sensed almost on the physical level.

The exhibition Density of Silence opening in ROSPHOTO shows two subjective views, two examples of interpretation of the world, realized in the images of Italian nature, freed of anything accidental and inconsistent.
Maria Gavrilchik

Elio Ciol was born in 1929 at Casarsa della Delizia (Italy), where he still lives and works. He was a member of the Udine film society and the Venetian Photographers’ Club “La Gondola”. Since the fifties he has developed his own personal language in landscape photography, which then evolved constantly, as witnessed by a whole series of books of photographs and exhibition catalogues. In the same period the activity of his professional studio was dedicated mainly to the production of documentary campaigns for works of art in Italy and Europe. This led Ciol to work on a large number of publications regarding the history of art.

Elio Ciol has exhibited his photographs in 122 personal and 121 collective exhibitions in: Chirch of St.Francis, Udine; Padua Palazzo del Monte di Pietà; Cohen Amador Gallery, New York; Centro Candiani, Mestre; Villa Manin, Udine; Pier Paolo Pasolini Study Centre, Casarsa; Church of St. Francis, Pordenone; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; International Museum of Photography, Rochester, New York; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona; Humanities Research Centre, University of Texas, Austin; Art Museum of Princeton University, New Jersey; Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montreal, Canada; The Art Institute of Chicago; The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi; Civici Musei e Gallerie di Storia e Arte, Udine; Galleria di Arte Contemporanea Pro Civitate Christiana, Assisi; Museo Diocesano e Gallerie del Tiepolo, Udine, and in numerous private galleries. Ciol's pictures have been used to illustrate over two hundred books.

Frank Dituri’s artwork is continuously exhibited in the United States, Europe and Asia. He has had numerous books of his images published and has been reviewed by many important publications, including the New York Times, Harpers Magazine, La Repubblica and the Corriere Della Sera. His photographs can be found in many private and public collections. Frank Dituri has been teaching for over thirty-seven years. He is currently in the art departments at C.W. Post, Long Island University, Libera Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy and is also a teaching artist for the LTA/Guggenheim Museum Program.

Frank Dituri has exhibited his photographs in more than 100 solo and more than 60 collective exhibitions. His photographs were exhibited in Photo Souz Gallery, Moscow; Centro Internazionale per la Fotografia, Barrea, Italy; Museo Leonardiano, Vince, Italy; Sirius Gallery, Tokyo; Taipei County Cultural Center, Taiwan, R.O.C.; Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA; New York Botanical Gardens; Krasnoyarsk Museum Centre; Novosibirsk State Art Museum; Galleria Internazionale di Grafica, Venezia; Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, New Zealand; and many more.
Frank Dituri’s works are part of the collections of La Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; The Alternative Museum, New York, NY; Cento Internnazionale per la Fotografia, Barrea, Italy; Centro di Ricerca e Archiviazione della Fotografica Spilimbergo (CRAF); Olympus Photo Company Collection, Tokyo, Japan; Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China and many more.

Image: Elio Ciol, Nel buio di un temporale. Assissi 1967

Rosphoto State Museum and Exhibition Centre
Ministry for Culture of the Russian Federation 35 Bolshaya Morskaya, 191186 Saint-Petersburg
Hours: daily 11-19
Admission to each exhibition hall - 100 rubles.
Free admission - students, AICA card holders, artists and museum employees.

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