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Paola Di Bello
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Lucciole

1988 - 91

I reflected a great deal on the theme of the “sign” in art, on the authoriality of the gesture that draws, on chance, on iconoclasm and on the irreproducibility of my Polaroids. The only way out might have been in setting the initial conditions in such a way that the image could be completed on its own. I was fascinated by the idea of a sign that was not determined by the artist’s hand, by her culture, but rather by something else that drew freely by tracing “unintentional” signs. That’s where Fireflies came from.I created this work by exposing film to the light emitted by twenty-five fireflies collected in the countryside. I took them to the darkroom and let them move freely on the sheets of black and white photographic film. Then I freed the fireflies and developed the film.

"Note the curious psychological effect. Most of us would see order in the strings and clumps of the stars, and would interpret the fireflies, with its lack of apparent pattern, as random. In fact, the opposite is true, and our ordinary conceptions are faulty."  Stephen Jay Gould, Glow, Big Glowworm, 1991

      

  • 2020 Paola Di Bello Citizens 1988-2006
    curated by Francesco Zanot, Galleria Bianconi, Milano, Italy
    Ph. Bruno Bani
  • 2020 Paola Di Bello Citizens 1988-2006
    curated by Francesco Zanot, Galleria Bianconi, Milano, Italy
    Ph. Bruno Bani
  • 2020 Paola Di Bello Citizens 1988-2006
    curated by Francesco Zanot, Galleria Bianconi, Milano, Italy
    Ph. Bruno Bani
  • 2020 Paola Di Bello Citizens 1988-2006
    curated by Francesco Zanot, Galleria Bianconi, Milano, Italy
    Ph. Bruno Bani
  • 2020 Resistance & Sensibility
    Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Frankufurt, Germany
    Ph. Esra Klein
  • 2018 L’altro sguardo. Fotografie italiane 1965-2018
    curated by Raffaella Perna, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, Italy
  • 2016 L’altro sguardo. Fotografie italiane 1965-2015
    curated by Raffaella Perna, Triennale di Milano, Milano, Italy
    Ph. Di Ioio
  • 2016 Paola Di Bello. Fotografie e video
    curated by Raffaella Perna, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2016 Paola Di Bello. Fotografie e video
    curated by Raffaella Perna, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2016 Sifest XXV - Alea Iacta Est
    Savignano sul Rubicone, Italy
  • 2010 Lucciole, ovvero l'età dell'ombra
    press article by Engramma
    See "news" section
  • 1995 Venti Fotografi Italiani
    curated by Paolo Costantini and William Guerrieri, Carpi, Italy
  • 1995 Mi Manifesto
    Galerie Kinter, Stuttgart, Germany
  • 1992 Cie Iio + Paola Di Bello
    Careof, Milan, Italy
  • 1992 Cie Iio + Paola Di Bello
    Careof, Milan, Italy
  • Lucciole
    1988 - 1991
    © Paola Di Bello
  • Lucciole
    1988 - 1991
    © Paola Di Bello
  • Lucciole
    1988 - 1991
    © Paola Di Bello

© 2018 Paola Di Bello