Invitation to the Defense of Melissa Destino

The Examination Panel is made up of: Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Ing. Angelika Schnell (chair), Univ.-Prof. Diedrich Diederichsen (first supervisor), Emanuele Coccia (second supervisor, EHESS École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) and Prof. Nicoletta Leonardi (external appraiser, Accademia di Brera, Milan).

Abstract

ACROSS ITALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY. On the in-between landscape, art, politics, and affective atmospheres, and around the experience of Viaggio in Italia investigates the genesis, the legacy, and the functioning of Viaggio in Italia. Viaggio in Italia was a twofold project that took the form of a publi-cation and an exhibition organized by Luigi Ghirri, Gianni Leone, and Enzo Velati in 1984 in the Pinacoteca Provinciale di Bari, Italy. This project rep-resents what has been called the manifesto of the Italian landscape school of photography, a new kind of approach or set of attitudes towards photog-raphy and landscape that originated in the 1980s in Italy. This study at-tempts to look obliquely at the space exceeding the notions of the manifes-to, Italian landscape, and school to find out within their discrepancies the mutual influences between the facts of Viaggio in Italia and the processes of canonization of a cultural object. Viaggio in Italia not only represents a watershed in the history of pho-tography, a last collective attempt to redefine the image of Italy, but it is a foundational experience for a new way of looking at the landscape that pro-foundly shifted its aesthetic categories. Neither did this new gaze originate in the sphere of architecture, urban planning, or environmental studies, nor did its validity remain within the border of those domains. It stemmed in between the meanders of these disciplines and exceeded across them be-coming a widespread, capillary, unpredictable, non-institutional affective atmosphere that remains valid after forty years. This research aims to uncover the socio-economical dynamics under-lying this exceptional event, deepen its understanding by contextualizing it in a broader panorama, and suggest a novel interpretation of the phenom-enon through the analysis of seemingly secondary factors such as narrative tools and shared emotions.

Short biography

Melissa Destino (Bari, 1984) is a curator, researcher, and writer with a background in contemporary art, design and photography. She has worked as artistic coordinator at Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, as curator at Spazio Murat, Bari, as assistant to the directors of Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna and in other contemporary art galleries, and as project assistant to Elena Filipovic for the publication The Artist as Curator (Mousse Publishing). As curator and project manager she has organized various exhibitions and festivals, such as Grotto. Absolvent*innenausstellung 2023 and Gasthof 2022 at Städelschule (Frankfurt am Main); Forensic Architecture. Practices of Verification; Bari Visionaria, 1989 - 1994, 2021; Giri di pensiero, Sul contemporaneo; Natalija Dimitrijević e Maria Trentadue; Osservatorio Murat; La città provvisoria at Spazio Murat (Bari); The School of Narrative Dance by Marinella Senatore during the Biennial ParckDesign 2016 (Bruxelles); Eyjafjallajökull at Komplot (Bruxelles). She was in charge of the curatorial affairs for the 62ma edizione Premio Termoli at MACTE – Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Termoli (Termoli). She contributed to several exhibition catalogues and publications.

The thesis defense will be in English and will take place in room 1.06 at Karl-Schweighofer-Gasse 3, 1070 Vienna.

We are looking forward to welcoming you.