In Bologna, 100 people bared their bare bodies for the very young photographer Matteo Piacenti

Until Feb. 18, the Senape Vivaio Urbano space on Via Santa Croce in Bologna is hosting the exhibition Nel giardino dei corpi svelati, a solo show by the very young photographer Matteo Piacenti (Bologna, 2001) exhibiting nude photographs taken during his first collective performance, which asks, "What if we started from nudity to regenerate society?" The project, curated by Leonardo Iuffrida, aims to highlight the centrality of the body in contemporary times and an urgent desire for authenticity, contact and a sense of community.

“Searching for likes and followers, gender stereotypes and the imposition of unattainable standards of beauty trap us in a constant performative effort to showcase our identity,” says the artist. “In a time when the virtual world replaces life in an all-encompassing way, it is imperative to bring the focus back to authenticity, but also to presence, physicality, active participation, empathy, a sense of community and connection with the other in real life. Unfiltered. The body is a fundamental and legitimate vehicle for communicating one’s identity, but today it has become one of the main tools for gaining social value, to the point of becoming a collective obsession. It is necessary, therefore, to strip away cultural conditioning and prejudices about beauty in order to live more consciously, embrace the uniqueness of each individual and welcome the multiplicity of the human landscape. Most importantly, to claim the right to reveal oneself and to be perceived beyond the domain of appearances. Without labels. Society frequently uses nudity as a weapon of control and power. Instead, nudity should be defended, when conscious and free, and claimed as a form of self-determination and self-appropriation.”

These reflections gave rise to the project of Matteo Piacenti, who posted an ad seeking subjects willing to literally uncover themselves in an inclusive performance that took place on December 4, 2022 in the exhibition hall of Senape Vivaio Urbano. Clothing and cell phones were banned for everyone, including the photographer. The only camera was Matteo Piacenti’s. There were more than 100 participants, from all over Italy and ranging in age from 18 to 91, many of whom had never before stripped in front of a lens or a group of people.

Passing through the culture of the IGOR bookstore and the vegetation of Urban Mustard Nursery, the performance participant was welcomed into the exhibition hall, transformed into a metaphorical bed where they could come together without barriers. “An intimate but public space,” the presentation reads, “to reiterate that need to open up to the other that bodies in their nakedness embody, and reduced in size to bring us closer together. An essential, candid, abstract, dreamlike environment without time and spatial coordinates to reach the deep roots of being. A performance conceived as an encounter. No activity to perform, no role to perform, other than the invitation to feel one’s body and connect with oneself and others, to courageously face the search for the most authentic part of us, individually and as a society. With a willingness to break down prejudices and old beliefs, participants were urged to approach a primal state in which together, naked and free, they unveiled and revealed themselves as if born for the first time. Blooming is a human network that yearns for vital humus, a garden in which bodies, senses and consciousnesses awaken like sprouts from which a new community radiates.”

The experience then continues in the exhibition that collects the nude photos taken by Piacenti during the performance. The visitor enters the same space where the performance took place, to bring the viewer closer to the event experienced and to enter, through photography, into a direct relationship with the participants. In the installation, the photographed subjects manifest themselves in their physical presence but also as human arborescences, intertwined with each other in a collective embrace made credible through the medium of photography.

Photography is not used by Piacenti as a mere testimony of a past event, but as its extension. Contrary to what happens with online content or pornographic images, which surrogate reality by depriving it of meaning, Piacenti’s photographs are meant to act as a conduit for an experience in which one is invited to participate directly and actively outside the image, enlivening the real and bringing involvement, desire and contact back into the physical dimension. Through the use of photography, the desire to keep alive that tangible relationship with reality that Piacenti proposed through his performance and his shots is thus emphasized. The invitation to participation and reflection is offered to the viewer of the exhibition as an outstretched hand.

Matteo Piacenti is an artist and representative of the new generation of photographers from the Istituto Luce Historical Archives. His works have been exhibited at The Royal Photographic Society in Bristol, WeGil in Rome, Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome, Museo delle Culture in Lugano, 29 Arts in Progress gallery in Milan, Teatro India in Rome, The Crypt Gallery in London.

The exhibition is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 7:30 p.m.

Matteo Piacentithe garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of unveiled bodies

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

Matteo Piacenti,the garden of bodies unveiled

enti,the garden of unveiled bodies

In Bologna, 100 people bared their bare bodies for the very young photographer Matteo Piacenti

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