Luca Santese
"Mütter"
The Kingdom of Forms

Exhibition: 9 June – 2 July, 2023
Opening: Friday, 9 June, 6pm

"Mütter", Luca Santese's first solo show in Germany is hosted and curated by JERGON, an art hub located in Berlin's cultural heart of Kreuzberg. The space is dedicated to the promotion of experimental photography and a center for independent research.

The exhibition itinerary unfolds in three spaces, each representing the constituent stages of Santese 's artist practice, which has been questioning the mimesis of the photographic image for 15 years by means of an ongoing comparison and association with archetypes and themes belonging to the history of classic and contemporary art. The artwork on display is drawn from the following series: Found Photos in Detroit, Sado, Festa and Errors, leading up to a metamorphic dialogue between abstraction and figuration, the historical and the archetypical, the realist and the visionary. The exhibition is curated by Nicola Patruno.

Luca Santese (*1985) pursued his studies at Monza's Art institute and at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan. While attending the Academy he worked as an assistant in Alex Majoli's studio and together they founded the collective Cesura in 2008. Cesura is an independent group of photographers aimed to impulse and support photojournalism, documentary and projects within art research.

In 2010 he was selected by the World Press Photo prize with the project Detroit 2009-2010 and in the same year he exhibited for the first time Found Photos in Detroit at Le Bal Space in Paris, to which followed exhibitions at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, OGR in Turin and the MoCP in Chicago as well as numerous further international exhibitions.

In 2012 he published the book Found Photos in Detroit with Arianna Arcara. The publication collected seven nominations as best photographic book of the year and was selected by Martin Parr and Garry Badger for the series: Photobook: A History Vol III, a selection of the 200 best books after World War Two.

Nowadays Santese's work approaches the production of research photography. He continues to delve into experimental documentary photography, the outcomes being shown respectively in Realpolitik (2018-2023) and the photo book Il Corpo del Capitano (2020). This last publication aims to research and depict a satirical perspective of the political propaganda of Matteo Salvini, an Italian political party leader.

His personal research continues with projects such as Festa (2019), Errors (2021) and the new experimental artwork exhibited for the first time in Mütter, his first German personal exhibition at Jergon, Berlin-based art hub.

Santese's works have been published and exhibited in Europe, United States, Russia and Asia.

Curated by Nicola Patruno

Complete catalogue: here