Milano, “The starry sky” brought back to earth with the Caterina Erica Shanta exhibition

Milano, “The starry sky” brought back to earth with the Caterina Erica Shanta exhibition. 

From January 25th to March 17th 2023 Careof presents the exhibition “The starry sky” di Caterina Erica Shanta (1986, Germany), artist and director who uses the video and language of documentary cinema to investigate the images produced by others in certain contexts.

Curated by Marta Cereda, “The starry sky” is an artistic and cinematographic project focused on feast of the Madonna della Bruna of Matera, a case study analyzed by the artist as an event increasingly told by the images that document it and testimony of the great historical, social and technological changes.

THEinaugurazione will be held Tuesday 24 January at 19.00 in the spaces of the Fabbrica del Vapore a Milano.

“In the crowded main square, smartphones and cameras above the heads of the public are focused on the imminent 'strazzo' of the Triumphal Chariot” he says Caterina Erica Shanta. “The air is electric, waiting for the crucial moment of the party. The papier-mâché cart arrives pulled by running mules. The square contracts and launches, the giant disappears before everyone's eyes, divided into thousands of fragments. In the moment before its evanescence, the square dotted with devices unconsciously abstracted and duplicated the great artefact. It is a cloud of points, a photogrammetry composed of luminous vectors in virtual black space: the third starry sky."

On display in the spaces inside Fabbrica del Vapore a Milano, medium length film produced by Careof and Invisibile Film which analyzes and recounts this very phenomenon, accompanied by a series of archival materials collected by the artist during the months of work in Basilicata and from a cycle of images created with the technique of photogrammetry, a technology capable of generating three-dimensional models starting from photographs taken around a central subject. In this sense, Caterina Erica Shanta has collected for years, through open calls, the photographs taken by the public with their cell phones in the main square of Matera during the key moment of the festival, i.e. the destruction - or 'strazzo' - of the triumphal chariot by the population. The moment the wagon disappears, demolished by thousands of arms, just as many take photographs: unconsciously they create a 360° photogrammetry almost perfect of the now destroyed central subject.

By investigating the relationship between the human being, the subject of the gaze and its virtual dematerialisation mediated by images, the "Starry Sky" project thus testifies to how the photographic act has become an integral part of a ritual behavior of today's human being, who transforms from a passive observer of an event in full swing into the author of a new narrative.

The project is also realized thanks to the contribution of Galleria Indice.

Biography Caterina Erica Shanta

Caterina Erica Shanta (1986, Germany; lives and works in Pordenone, Italy), artist and director, trained in Venice where in 2014 she obtained a Master's degree in Visual Arts at the IUAV University. Video is her main means of investigation. Investigate images produced by others to explore how these relate to particular contexts. She uses montages and remixes of video, footage, and archival images as her primary media. Her research focuses on the redefinition of images typical of the language of documentary cinema. Shanta has taken part in numerous training programs dedicated to moving images, artistic residencies – Atelier Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, CAREOF Art Residency – non-profit organization for contemporary artistic research, Dolomiti Contemporanee, and programs for artists such as VISIO – European Program on Artists' Moving Images at Lo Schermo dell'arte Film Festival. You currently collaborate with the archivist and photographer Rawsht Twana on the TWANA ARCHIVE project, supported by the Italian Council, General Directorate of Contemporary Creativity, Ministry of Culture.

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