somewhere near

a blog on visions and interferences by Novella Oliana

[novellaoliana]

I’m very happy to share with you that I will be in Arles during the festival Les Rencontres de la Photographie to first experiment a performance inspired by my work

Le Liste Vertiginose

What is this all about? What if emotions, memories, ideas are so confused and indefinite that it’s impossible to represent them through definite images? Is an image real? Is an idea real? Or is it the way we perceive it that makes it so? Writing lists has prevented me from feeling a sense of vertigo given by the overlapping of confused visual material inhabiting my deepest imagination. Like images never photographed or missed, my lists represent an inventory: they behave like images and invite to think visually. They come in the format of Polaroid images where the writing itself becomes an auto-evocative and auto-developing vision. When memories and ideas easily disappear into the deep immensity of our brain we have lists that sort them out into potentially infinite inventories, giving sense to what is untranslatable, unspeakable and invisible. What will you do if you’ll participate?

You’ll write your own list trying to challenge the impossibilities of representation and un-photograph some images that make our head spin way too fast. You will use your pen and a Polaroid I’ll provide in order to make a paradoxical poetic act that connects impossibilities and potentialities of representation. Lists are a form of art trying to create the possibility of what should/could be against the rigidity of what is, by materializing new transformations. We need to open our visions to new potentialities that include and use the impossible as material for creation. There’s no need to further stress that we live in a world full of images, we consume them fast and sometimes they even play us hiding themselves by disappearing into the immensity of the web.

Your lists will be your “promemoria”, a reminder of some images that slip away fast, that convey both an impossibility and the potentiality for new expressions. You are most welcome to join me on the 8th of July at 4pm at LeBoudoir, 5 rue de Vernon in Arles together with many other amazing artists and speakers.

I’ll be waiting for you!

Ciao!

Novella Oliana

[novellaoliana]

My Souvenir de la Mer at FUNZILLA PHOTOZINE FESTIVAL- May 19th-21st. Don't miss them! #Souvenir #mer #mediterranean #sea🌊 #funzilla #photozine #selfpublishing #novellaoliana #espace #lieu #mental #image #contreespace #contemporaryphotography #carnetdevoyage #intimacy #extimacy

[novellaoliana]

Work in progress of my research! #phd #recherche #hypothèse d'une #ile #création #home #studio #backstage #sea🌊 #space #place #mediterranean #parallel #universes #novellaoliana #contemporaryphotography #photographiecontemporaine #solidsea #représentation #replacer devant #lesyeux (presso Mediterranean Sea)

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#moodoftheday #aujourdhui #stupeur #sentiment #mots en #images #novellaoliana

[novellaoliana]

#digging up my #archives #mum #2008

[novellaoliana]

My #contribution #toolsforculture #culture #art #education #projects #contemporaryphotography #maps #space #stories #ikea

[novellaoliana]

February: a list of maps

Hello everyone,

here I am sharing with you my February list of some of the things I loved during the past month. This one is somehow related to our trajectories in the space and how they can create a particular kind of evocative geography for each one of us. It is about transformations from physical movements to inner feelings, from forms to thoughts, from fixed destinations to multiple paths and vice-versa. It is eventually about choosing to navigate in the indefinite and sometimes slippery sea of possibilities instead of wandering in the realm of certitude trying not to get lost. All in all, maps are lists that can be read from all the directions and that still make sense.

1. We create mental maps everyday, not only by moving in the physical space, but also thanks to our thoughts, metal images, perceptions. Madeleine De Scudéry in the 17th century created the map of "Pays de Tendre", the realm of tenderness, an imaginary cartography of feelings and passions which is now archived in Paris at Bibliothèque Nationale de France. As much as she was speaking about trajectories of the heart, many other authors and artists have used cartography to speak about all sort of trajectories.

2. Maps can be means of exorcising pain. You have one interesting and cathartic example (such a good inspiration) in this blog by an anonymous New York user who transformed her divorce in a real atlas of datas concerning her emotions, her way of dealing with her relationships and her everyday life. In "Random Acts of Movement" she decided to transform her random whereabouts in a topographic scheme. She says, "During breakups you sometimes go from living with someone for years to living alone within a matter of days. It results in feeling restless and anxious inside an apartment you used to share with your partner. The apartment goes from being a sanctuary to a hell booby-trapped with reminders of a relationship’s past. The solution? Temporarily running away." She used maps to reset herself into a familiar physical space so that her sadness won't take her far away from herself, giving her a sense of loss.

3. And another interesting example is the work by Bouchra Khalili, a Moroccan-French artist, transforms the trajectories of migrants who cross the Mediterranean - a space full of complexites, opposite feelings, individual and collective issues - into "Constellations", like the ones used by sailors to locate themselves on the sea. Each person she interviewed would tell her the story of his/her travel and you can find it in a video installation that you can check out here .

4. Antonio Rovaldi, an Italian photographer, travelled with his bicycle around the Italian coasts photographing the horizon line as perceived by the land towards the sea, recreating with his images a long never-ending line across the space. Here you are his work and his book that I discovered thanks to a friend.

5. Sometimes there are directions we cannot follow anymore, places we cannot reach back, places we cannot see anymore, routes that we cannot travel back, things we cannot undo. But maybe we can just transform them. For instance, Palestinian artist Yazan Khalili, talks about frontiers in his own land and about his failed love story, asking himself:       

6. Méditerranée sans Frontières is an ongoing project and a map by Sabine Réthoré. She recreated the maps of the Mediterranean by overcoming the ideas of nations and frontiers.

7. And here you are an inspiring gorgeous Brain Pickings list of "7 magnificent books on maps" that I liked a lot!

8. I 'm deeply in love with poet Ron Padgett, (his poems are in Jarmush's Paterson). Please check his interview for the New York times and his website . Eventually, a little candy here taken from his book "Collected Poems", Coffeehouse Pr, 2013, p. 532., which is actually a poem-list and a map with directions for the soul:

9. For my "archive of things found on the ground":

- a queen of diamonds

- a piece of indigo

10. I've just taped on Google "directions for the soul" and here you are what it still suggests me:

11. My Souvenir de la mer are still traveling! You will be able to find them starting from March 2nd at Atelier 3 in Marseille thanks to the support of the artist Carolle Benitah. You can still find them in Rome at Galleria Gallerati and now also at Leporello bookstore in Via del Pigneto 162/E. If you are not in Marseille or Rome, you can purchase "Souvenir de la mer" on my website, here .

Thank you for reading. If you like my monthly lists and want to support my work consider forwarding this email to a friend: Subscribe to this newsletter Ciao! Novella Oliana

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Ce matin, grands #crabes au #miroir (presso Vieux Port (Marseille))

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#photomaton #corrections #effacements #regards #double #pluriel #photographiecontemporaine (presso Marseille, France)

[novellaoliana]

Hello everyone,

I have a passion for lists. Writing a list is the first thing I do almost every morning, it helps me keeping the pace with myself: what I discovered/loved/learned, what I need to do and how I imagine it. This monthly list I share with you is about books, unknown islands, love, seeing, photography and space.

1. Here you are a book I loved, "The tale of the unknown island" by José Saramago, of which I read its Italian translation: Il racconto dell'isola sconosciuta, Feltrinelli, Milano 1997. If you want to buy it consider having a walk to a bookstore - I'm trying to be more attentive to my CO2 balance: maybe Amazon it's not always THE solution;)

2. And a quotation from it: "Bisogna allontanarsi dall'isola per vedere l'isola" (my translation: one needs to get away from the island in order to see it). This is all about the act of seeing and photographing: to see means to see in relation. My point of view inevitably changes if I am on the "island" or if I am far away from it. My vision is even modified according to my proprioceptive and spacial conditions. But isn't it all about living, after all? Relationships, interactions, love. Isn't the act of photographing about our relationship with the world? Isn't it love in some ways?

3. If I see an object in space I see it in context. I really want to share a well known poem I've always loved by William Carlos Williams, The red wheelbarrow. It's such a visual poem and it really talks about seeing (and, by the way: if you haven't yet, you should definitely go watch "Paterson" by Jim Jarmush):

So much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

 4. A brilliant artist, photographer and teacher I always follow with passion on Facebook, Pino Musi, just posted the pictures of a wonderful book by Wolfgang Tillmans, with some inspiring reflections about its way of perceiving photography and space. You can find Pino Musi's post here: 

https://www.facebook.com/pino.musi/posts/1178315938924772?pnref=story/

5. Here you are an Italian publishing house I've just discovered and I find it really precious: 

http://www.henrybeyle.com/

For instance, check out this book (which by the way suggests me a list!): 

http://www.henrybeyle.com/libro/case-in-cui-ho-abitato-201

6. Today I found this on the ground in the street:

I think it means a lot finding a map in the street and I take it like a sign! I'll keep it in my "archive of things found in the street". I think everyone should have one. Mine is full of playing cards too.

7.My Souvenir de la mer (http://www.novellaoliana.com/souvenir-mer/pictures/) are traveling! They will join me during my stay in Marseille where I will present them at Aix-Marseille University Visual Arts department, to other artists and galleries.You can find them in Rome at Galleria Gallerati (http://www.galleriagallerati.it/) and now also at Leporello bookstore in Via del Pigneto 162/E.

If you are not in Marseille or Rome, you can purchase "Souvenir de la mer" on my website, here:

http://www.novellaoliana.com/purchase-print/souvenir-de-la-mer/

8. Once David Bowie was asked "What do you consider your greatest achievement?" Bowie didn't name any of his albums, videos, or performances. Rather, he answered, "Discovering morning." 

Besides anything, I wish we can engage ourselves - at least for the rest of this month - to discover our mornings.

Thank you for reading. If you like my monthly lists and want to support my work consider forwarding this email to a friend: 

Subscribe to this newsletter

Ciao!

Novella Oliana

[novellaoliana]

If you are not based in Italy you can #purchase my #work "#Souvenir de la #mer" by #sending me an #email at [email protected]. I'll be pleased to give you more information concerning prices and shipment. More information on my website! www.novellaoliana.com

[novellaoliana]

Here you are my "Souvenir de la mer": an attempt to #represent - through the protocols of #contemporaey #photography - the #sea as a #vast #stretch of #space and as a water-territory dense in #contrasts , #complementary #visions and personal/collective #imagination. "#Souvenir de la mer" is a small #artistic #object auto-produced in #30 #samples. It is on sale and you can #purchase it either by contacting me or Galleria Gallerati in Rome. (presso Mediterranean Sea)

[novellaoliana]

Pantone Méditerranée aujourd'hui le 15 décembre à 16h00 #variation #couleur #mer #espacecouleur #photographiecontemporaine (presso Marseille, France)

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Calanchi #calanques #mer (presso Marseille, France)

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Il #mare in macchina #faux #mer #fake #sea #novellaoliana #obsession #mediterranean #photographiecontemporaine

[novellaoliana]

Once David Bowie was asked "What do you consider your greatest achievement?" Bowie didn't name any of his albums, videos, or performances. Rather, he answered, "Discovering morning." #discovering #morning #riscoprire la #mattina la #vittoria #piùgrande (presso Villa Pamphili)

[novellaoliana]

Soundtrack: https://youtu.be/uLNDtYnE7l4 #studio #work #atelierd'étude #novellaoliana #mer #rome #photographiecontemporaine (presso Rome, Italy)