EPICENTRO (PSALM)
By Massimiliano Tommaso Rezza
20/05/2021 - 18/09/2021
The exhibition Epicentro (Psalm) is a spacial translation of the images and the ideas expressed in the book Psalm by Massimiliano Tommaso Rezza, published in 2020 by Witty Books. Since the images and their reciprocal position in the book create an order that cannot be changed, they should be rearranged differently when they occupy a physical space, as in an exhibition. Epicentro (Psalm) presents the conceptual and emotional core of the book but through different schemes, forms and articulations. Furthermore, according to the author’s personal idea, which he has also expressed in other books, exhibitions and texts, images have a particular nature: they proliferate and develop according to their uncertain but fertile nature. Images therefore are like living organisms.
The poem Psalm by Paul Celan is a mournful chant that announces a state of total loss of personal and existential orientation. The sky above is empty. No- body answers our cry for help. When the physical world is threatened, we cease to rely only on our own reasoning, and we look first for words or images that can immediately express our state of dismay. Man finds a different language, a poetic one, that is no longer an expression of certainty – that certainty the current crisis has disrupted. The formulation of human disorientation becomes a chant, a lament, a psalm where the abyss is revealed and with which we have to coexist.
Massimiliano Tommaso Rezza (born in 1967) is an Italian artist. His research focuses mainly on the relations between photographic language (its aesthetics, conventions, stereotypes and ideological influences) and photographic practice (in authors, amateurs, and general communication). He has had solo and collective exhibitions, in private and public spaces; he has participated in various festivals in Italy and Europe. He has published four photographic books: Atem (Yard Press), Psalm (Witty Books), Un certo Salvatore M. (Pneumatica), Non sono io il fotografo (Pneumatica). As an independent researcher he has written critical texts about the photographic medium (Archivio Mag- azine, American Suburb X) and essays, as in the case of Carlo Levi a San Costantino Albanese. Archivi della Basilicata (Humboldt Books). In December 2019 he launched the independent publishing project Pneumatica. Since 2013 he has taught the course Photography for the Media at Richmond University of Rome.