Una mostra futugrafica di Antoine Giacomoni
A photographic exhibition by Antoine Giacomoni
Scenography :
Scenographic design CREAB DESIGN
Project manager – designer HERVE AMIEL in collaboration with JEAN-MARC BLANC scenographer – executive production
Realization :
Installation and removal: company ESPACES
Equipment, electricity and lighting: EDC company
Manufacture of metal structure : COMEC company
Silver prints : Denis Stass-Mandrakimage
Large format digital prints : Imprimerie Pasqualini
Texts : Antoine Giacomoni
“U sognu, u spechju, a bandera”, like a disturbing self-portrait in the wonderful space of his magic mirror, Antoine Giacomoni, one of the most emblematic Corsican artists, seduces and fascinates…
And our soul is touched by its mystical dimension and by the intense emotion that emanates from this installation dedicated to the iconic severed head of the Corsican flag, where absolute modernity, timelessness, and black and white origins merge.
In addition to his undeniable aesthetic and artistic quality, this master of black and white silver also reveals himself as an author where, as in his portraits with eyes studded with squares of light – a true trademark – his dizzying mise en abîme never loses its share of childhood and innocence.
Antoine Giacomoni remains convinced that he has chosen the most beautiful profession in the world, or at least the one that suits him best: PHOTOGRAPHER [from the Greek photo = light and graphe = to write]: TO WRITE WITH LIGHT, to write that an island remains vulnerable and fragile.
BIOGRAPHY of Antoine Giacomoni
Born on April 16, 1955 in Borgo (Haute-Corse). Lives and works in Corsica. Raised in a sheepfold by his grandmother, he discovered the big city, BASTIA, and the French language at the age of six. Fourteen years later, with his baccalaureate in his pocket, he left his island for the first time aboard a plane that dropped him off in PARIS. It was two years ago that he discovered the magic box known as the camera. He enrolled in the Plastic Arts program at the Sorbonne and stayed there for two years.
In 1977, the PUNK wave made him cross the Channel. Definitely hooked on his camera and his lenses, the young nihilist starts to travel. From then on, music became the red thread of his photographic wanderings. And, from urban punk revolt to Rasta spirituality, there is only one step. From one island to another. In Jamaica, Antoine Giacomoni becomes a professional photographer: first reports. Back in old Europe, the technique finally mastered, the young photographer begins to dream of other worlds. He wants to go through the looking glass. Combining minimalism (a simple mirror surrounded by light bulbs) with the glamour of the Hollywood golden age (everyone becomes a star in this mirror with a thousand lights). The Mirror Concept imposes itself as the double of the exiled Corsican. NICO who sang I’ll be your mirror in the Velvet Underground, is the first guest of the mirror. The mirror and its owner settle in London in 1980 – the “Mirror’s sessions” are going to follow one another during three years.
In 1983 the prodigal son returned to the continent. At the Galerie des Lombards (Paris) an indefinitely prolonged exhibition consecrates him as the Wonderboy of rock photography. A year later he returned to the GAMMA agency and then became a freelancer.
In 1986 he received the TOTEM du BATACLAN awarded by France 3 Television for his invention of the MIRROR CONCEPT.
In 1991 Antoine Giacomoni published his first book Portraits through the mirror, the result of a decade of mirror sessions devoted to international stars. From then on he undertook a long work dedicated to his native island Corsica through the mirror/A CORSICA franchendu ù specchiu (La marge edition 2002).
Three other books follow at Horizon Illimité editions:
- Nico, or the Drama of the exile (2003)
- Daho par GIACOMONI, the mirror sessions parties and Reggae/Jamaïca (2004).
- He published in 2007 a series entitled The Catalans through the mirror, EL Catalans à traves del mirall to Editions Trabucaire (2007)
- He is interested in the other islands of the Mediterranean, particularly Sicily, Malta and Sardinia.
- In spite of a very heavy visual handicap, making it impossible for him to take any new pictures, he devotes himself to writing and creating a tarot, mixing drawings and symbols, of which a playful aspect of this original graphic work “L’ALPHABET MAGIQUE D’ANTOINE GIACOMONI”, will be published by COLONNA. Among other publications of strictly photographic works retracing his international career, one will retain the much awaited Volume II of Corsica through the looking glass, thus marking the indefectible link to his native island.
Biography extracted from ” Corsica through the mirror/A Corsica franchendu ù specchiu ” La Marge Edition, 2002.
“…The studio is a magic square that reflects the image and is surrounded by a ramp of light. The subject is split in the dazzle. And the light, which forms a ring in the pupil, a small halo sanctifying the moment, becomes the signature of these mirror sessions, which are very much like the improvisation sessions that some musicians have with each other…” (Extract from the text MIRROR of the artist)
(Extract from the text MIRROR of the MYTH by Anne-Marie MORICE)
Antoine Giacomoni after MAN RAY could claim the title of psychic photographer, so much one has the impression while contemplating his pictures to read there the soul of his models…” (Serge FERAY, extract of the text “
(Serge FERAY, extract from ” NICO in camera “, Cahiers de nuit Editeur, 1999)
