MATTEO PIACENTI

Is it possible to regenerate society by nudity? This is the question that the Italian photographer Matteo Piacenti has been making in occasion of his exhibition called “In the Garden of the Revealed Bodies” [Nel giardino dei corpi svelati] curated by Leonardo Iuffrida. If you have the chance, go and see the exhibition in Bologna until the 18th, and if you live on the other side of the world, check out the preview here.

The aim of this art project is to show how nudity can become one of the main ways to have access to authenticity, contact in real life and freedom beyond social and gender expectations or traditional beauty ideals.

Virtuality has been substituting our lives. The images seen on-line make us feel needy, weak and in competition and even if constantly connected on-line we are more isolated than ever. The body is a legitimate vehicle to communicate our identity, but nowadays how we look has become such an obsession that we believe that our social value and happiness only depends on how much we fit the standards imposed by trends, or we accept our appearance. It is time to live without filters and without the imprisonment of beauty. In addition to that, nudity is often use as a weapon of control and dominance. But if nudity is a free choice, it must be claimed as a brave way for self-determination.

The exhibition wants the visitor to think about these contemporary issues displaying the photos taken by Piacenti during an inclusive one-day performance which took place at Senape Vivaio Urbano, a LGBTQ+ store located in Bologna, Italy. More than 100 people of all genders and sexual orientations, from 18 to 91 years old, have been invited to be naked on a metaphorical bed in front of the camera and the other naked participants. Some of them are naturists, but for most of them it was the first time to be photographed without clothes or to be naked among other people. No guests, visitors, mobile phones or clothes were allowed during a performance that was a meeting of hearts and souls. The only thing to do was to feel their own bodies again and to connect with themselves and the others in real life while the photographer, who was naked too, tried to support them in this process of discovery. The space became a representation of social nudity since displaying the naked body openly is as intimate as a bed and as public as a store. The walls and the floor were completely white and abstract to reset, start a new path and reach the deep roots of being.

By being exposed and apparently more vulnerable, the walls between the others are thinner and so it is easier to reveal our authentic self and to know the others beyond appearance, social constructions, gender roles and prejudices. Sharing who we truly are, we give the opportunity to ourselves and the others to rebirth. Together.

Piacenti’s photos are currently displayed in the same room where the performance was made to make the visitor feel close to the experience. The exhibition space become a garden of Eden where bodies, senses and consciousnesses can wake up and blossom to generate a new inclusive free spirit community.

Matteo Piacenti (Italy, 2001): artist and representative of the new generation of photographers of the Istituto Luce Historical Archive. In 2015 the first personal exhibition in Nepi, Italy titled Primi Impatti (First Impacts) paved the way for a series of exhibitions culminating at: The Royal Photographic Society Bristol, Accademia di Belle Arti Bologna, We Gil Rome, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Rome, Museo delle Culture Lugano, 29 Arts in Progress gallery Milan, Teatro India Rome, The Crypt Gallery London.