ROME aise – It is scheduled until February 3 in the spaces of the harpsichord gallery Of Romein Bourgeois Palace“La vie en vert”, a new photographic project by Karmen KorakItalian artist of Slovenian origin who studied Graphic Arts in Croatia and Conservation and restoration of works of art on paper in Italy, Japan and Austria.
The photographs on display bear witness to a revered nature, to a landscape contemplation that moves the observer to dialogue with them. The images are the result of an evolutionary process that starts from a love of gardens, combined with a profound interest in the traditional culture of the Far East. And it is from Japan, on the island of Shikoku, that the washi paper comes, ideal for printing these images.
Taken in botanical gardens in Italy, Slovenia, Germany, France, China and Japan, Karmen Corak’s photographs assign a cultural value to the impermanence, to the fading of the landscape, reflecting on its poetic value. Thus the images suggest, even through the smallest details, the spirituality of her connection with the landscape and the depth of an inner relationship, based on the vibrant interaction between memory and the present.
A famous phrase by the poet JC Friedrich Hölderlin had a strong impact on the photographer: “Full of merits, but poetically, man lives on this earth”. Leading the viewer through the photographs on display, Corak writes that this reflection on Nature “evokes in me the memory of childhood joy and the discoveries of the ‘green’ feeling in the family garden. The light reflected on the plants remained as a reminiscence in my eyes. The contemplation of Nature refers to everything that has been seen in the past, in the imagination, or to intimate experience, a revelation over time. The landscape is an inexhaustible source that invites interaction”.
“We met Karmen Corak as a restorer of ancient works on paper and passionate about Japan and the traditional ancient printing techniques of that country”, declares the director of the Galleria del Cembalo, Paola Cavazza. “Then we discovered her photographic work, which in the investigation of the hidden forms of nature conceals an intimate search for oneself and for a profound belonging to everything”.
Born in Slovenia, Karmen Corak studied Graphic Arts in Croatia and Conservation and restoration of works of art on paper in Italy, Japan and Austria. You attend photography seminars with Rinko Kawauchi and Hans-Christian Schink. You live and work between Rome and Venice. She has worked at GNAM, at the Accademia in Venice and now at Chalcography in Rome as a restorer of paper / ancient prints. You participate in group exhibitions in China, Korea, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary and the USA; and with personal exhibitions at the various editions of the International Photography Festival in Rome. She receives international awards in Fine Art Photography in Paris, Malaga and Berlin.
The Galleria del Cembalo, a large exhibition space opened on the initiative of Paola Stacchini Cavazza inside Palazzo Borghese, in the ancient heart of Rome, between Piazza di Spagna and the Tiber, wants to give back to collectors and art lovers some of the rooms on the ground floor that Marcantonio IV Borghese had decorated at the end of the eighteenth century to house his collection of works of art. The exhibition activity, directed in collaboration with Mario Peliti, has photography as its central element and its dialogue with other forms of artistic expression.
The inaugural exhibition, in May 2013, was entitled Passaggi and was curated by Giovanna Calvenzi. The central theme was the discontinuity of style and content in the work of three generations of Italian photographers. Photographs by Ugo Mulas, Mario Cresci, Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico, Francesco Radino, Antonio Biasiucci, Paolo Pellegrin, Luca Campigotto, Paolo Ventura, Silvia Camporesi, Alice Pavesi and Moira Ricci were exhibited. Since then, in the space of nine years, fifty-two exhibitions have been produced, including monographs and collectives, sometimes of significant curatorial commitment, presenting both works by celebrated authors and new proposals.
The gallery numbers among its artists Letizia Battaglia, Antonio Biasiucci, Christopher Broadbent, Danila Tkachenko, Alessandro Imbriaco, Luca Campigotto, Lorenzo Castore, Nicolò Cecchella, Stefano Cerio, Kathryn Cook, Karmen Corak, Cortis & Sonderegger, John Demos, Giorgia Fiorio, Joan Fontcuberta, Charles Fréger, Michael Kenna, Charles March, Massimo Siragusa, Toni Thorimbert. (aise)
