Wise Memories. An exhibition of Giovanni Chiaromonte’s photographs ‘full of grace’. Well worth a visit

More on the skilful cultivation of memory. Viasaterna, Irene Cocco’s gallery just a stone’s throw from Cadorna, has entrusted Luca Fiore with curating “Alight”, an exhibition comprising 75 images by Giovanni Chiaramonte (1948–2023), born in the Varese area, based in Milan and possessing a poetic view of the world. Constructed by sifting through the extensive archive left to the family, it draws on the knowledge and elective affinity between curator and photographer. It stimulates – a rare occurrence, given the times – spiritual, almost theological, as well as aesthetic reflections.

For Chiaramonte, darkness does not exist ontologically: it is merely the absence of light, just as evil is merely the deprivation of good. The exhibition begins with the neon works from the 1970s in the series "La Creazione" (rarely seen) and culminates in the revelatory moment of 2001 at Villa Panza. There, in the presence of Dan Flavin’s colourful light installations, Chiaramonte realised that the rooms conceived and cherished by the count and collector Giuseppe Panza di Biumo could become authentic darkrooms. What happens, then, if the light is switched off? Thanks to a play of holes and reflections that only a lens as delicate as his can capture, the created world outside brings the interior to life. Chiaramonte’s rediscovery – with his resistance to nihilism and visual excess, and his photography imbued with grace – is excellent news.