toni bruna... from the archives

A practice session in their studio in Trieste, Italy, on November 10th, 2009. Toni Bruna is one of the very few bands that create music in Tristin, the local dialect and, like many all over the world, a dying language. As I hear, they are finishing the last details on their newest album, Formigole. Follow this link to Toni Bruna's website.

Toni Bruna's website

Toni Bruna's website is in the works. This past March I flew to Trieste to create the images that fill the beautifully designed site: http://www.tonibruna.com

The man in charge of creating this site is the great Chilean designer José Cortés, whose work can be viewed here: http://www.inamible.com/

Toni Bruna's trees

We found the location by accident, as serendipitous things usually happen. These trees stand beside a centuries-old church where the musician Toni Bruna used to go throughout his childhood and teenagehood. "Not to pray," he said, but to enjoy the energy and the view. From there we can see the beginning of Istria, his grandparents' land, which is now devided between Croatia and Slovenia, from what I understand. His family had to flee their original homegrounds to Trieste, Italy. Trieste itself has been fought over many times as well, at some point being a part of Austria. In this region it seems everyone has fled a war or two, something which is embeded in the culture and in the cool air.

Toni Bruna composes in Triestino, the dialect he was raised speaking. From what he told me, there are increasingly fewer people learning this dying language. It is a shame that, all over the world, languages are dying fast with each new generation. Losing a language also means the loss of a significant wealth of culture.

location scouting in a place of silence, part II

location scouting in a place of silence

What brought me to this region, on the seemless border between Italy and Slovenia, was a job. I was assigned to create images for the website of local singer-songwriter Toni Bruna. We spent two days going through the beautiful countryside in search of a location that "spoke" to his idea of the images and that was suitable to our art direction. Silence reigned in this place, and, being so used to the chaos of Barcelona, I was certainly pleased to hear my footsteps for the first time in months.

the line between Italy and Slovenia

A land that holds much history of the persecuted people from Istria. Beauty here is found in the smallest details of ages-old stone buildings.

Toni Bruna live at La Jazera, Trieste • part III

Go here to learn more about La Jazera radio station: http://www.lajazera.net/

Toni Bruna live at La Jazera, Trieste • part II

Toni Bruna live at La Jazera, Trieste • Italy

Today my job was to document the live performance of Toni Bruna at La Jazera, a tiny independent radio station in Trieste, Italy. The public was invited to come and listen live on headphones set up outside the radio station on the sidewalk. Photographing live music is always a pleasure. Well, unless it's music I don't like, but this is not the case here.

Toni Bruna has a lovely sound, which can be heard on their website: http://www.tonibruna.com

Artissima 2009 • Torino, Italy

Wolfgang Tillmans

Susan Norrie, still from film entitled Havoc

http://www.susannorrie.com/

For more information on this year's Artissima, go to:
http://www.artissima.it/

Artissima 2009 • Torino, Italy

Miroslav Tichy

Santiago Sierra

Santiago Sierra

Artissima 2009 • Torino, Italy

Ottonella Mochellin & Nicola Pellegrini

Galeria Pianissimo

Boris Mikhailov

Artissima 2009 • Torino, Italy

Michel François • The Speaker Corner

Ivan Moldov • Already Made

Alfredo Jaar • Angel

As I have been told, Artissima is the largest art faire in Italy and one of the largest in the world. Here, thousands of people congregate every year to be around "art" I suppose. It's known to be a very exclusive event, where gallerists have booths in which their represented artists' work is displayed in the hopes of finding a new home.

I noticed a few different types of people while browsing around. There were, as before mentioned, the people working for the galleries (eager to sell art in a moment of deep economic crisis), the "aspiring artists" (hoping to one day be "discovered" and therefore represented by a gallery), the possible buyers (part of which were probably undercover, underdressed not to be hovered over like the overdressed ones were), and a whole bunch of browsers like me, people who don't really know why they are there, just that they are.

Overall, there was a sense of despair in the air, with a slight hint of decay, probably coming from the rot of it all. Yes, I have a very strong opinion of this so called "art world," and it is not a positive one. I have always been uncorfortable with the stereotypical art openings, where people hang onto their glasses of wine while pretending to look deeply to try and understand the art hanging on the walls. Often times the art hanging on the walls happens to be images of not-so-fortunate people in so-called "underdeveloped" parts of the world. Am I the only one to whom this whole thing seems discusting?

There is, of course, the other aspect of this "art world." Who, really dictates what is "art," what is worth looking at and spending thousands on? Who, I ask, who? Who has the authority to comb through the objects resulting from the unsilent minds of people society categorizes as "artists"? My disgust with the art world has less to do with art then with the system in which it exists.

To be completely honest, of all the "high art" on display at Artissima, about 99% was meaningless. To me, completely meaningless. "Art" that says nothing, that is just there for aesthetics and nothing more. "Art" produced because it will sell. "Art" the market is thirsting for.

So much energy, time and resources are spent on events like this, when there are so many more meaninful and emergent questions to be addressed in our complicated modernity. It sickens me, really.

Claudia Virginia Vitari at Le Nuove • Torino, Italy

Claudia Virginia Vitari • Torino, Italy