SAGE at PARIS PHOTO 2016 / GHIRRI, UEDA, GIOLI : 3 exceptional and unique sets of work.
10 - 13 November 2016 / Opening on November 9th, 11h - 14h (by invitation only)

Atlante, Luigi Ghirri

This set, which we are presenting at PARIS PHOTO 2016, is the only set known to date to be composed of forty-one photographs numbered by Ghirri in an ascending order and signed by him on the mount. The only other known set is the one conserved in the Ghirri Archives of the Biblioteca Panizzi in Reggio-Emilia, which is composed of thirty-four images.

This set was produced in 1973 by Ghirri and his printer Arrigo Ghi for a Roman collector wishing to help Ghirri on his way to becoming a well-known artist. Until recently it has remained in the portfolio in which Ghirri had placed it. It is in perfect condition.

A unique series, Atlante is a journey of exceptional breadth and radical aesthetics; it is a journey through the world, from the desert to the Arctic, but most importantly a conceptual journey through signs, conventions, and the words that define things. Ghirri questions them by photographing his atlas, focusing on a few words or some conventions of representation of the landscape. Through that fragmentary focus he creates the illusion of a real landscape. Focusing on the sign by taking it apart, he retranscribes the real landscape. We no longer see the images of an atlas, but deserts, mountains and glaciers in their true essence.


Portraits of cherries, Shoji Ueda

These photographs, taken by Shoji Ueda between 1985 and 1990 – which have never been exhibited or seen since by the public outside our gallery – are representative of Shoji Ueda’s playful spirit and style. In these pictures he displays his talent for staging and his sense of humour to create a still life that he calls “Portrait of cherries”, a very modern and striking take in keeping, as if by accident, with the history of painting, dating from the baroque chiaroscuro of the Dutch golden age.

Luminescente and Torace, Paolo Gioli

Paolo Gioli’s sixteen Luminescente (2007-2010), like the nine Torace (2007), are the products of a visual experiment that negates the reproducibility of the medium, conferring on each image an exclusive character.

Here the artist mixes destruction with creation. For the Torace series he distorts the image-layer by scratching it or cutting it up, dissecting the photographic matter itself, lights it anew before adding bits of silk or gouache; as for the Luminescente series, after having lit them strongly during the shot, he coats the developed image with a phosphorescent matter, intrinsically binding matter and image.

The nine photographs of Torace have been exhibited in the Italian pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennial.


Also presented on our stand: Nan Goldin, Wolfgang Tillmans and Tatsuo Kawaguchi.