“When you’re losing sight, the world starts to appear fragmented, like through a broken screen. Then you stop understanding where light comes from.” – Dale Layne
The blind live in a sighted world. They have to function in a system constructed on the rules of seeing. Many of them could once see, but after going blind they were forced to reinvent their identity and relationship to the world after years of a sighted life.
Over the course of two years, photographer Gaia Squarci was guided by the blind and visually impaired in an exploration of their lives. Her interest was sparked from the disconnect between the popular concept of blindness as a metaphor and its reality. Stripped of its mysterious aura, the blindness of daily life, the one that’s not heard in the words of a song, often turns out to be scary, disquieting and kept at a distance.
The exhibition Broken Screen displays images, text in the form of visual description and audio fragments from interviews, following a loose thread of individual stories. The photographs are characterized by a strongly subjective sense of space and shapes, a reminder that “photography offers just a version of reality, not reality itself”.
L’Oeil de la Photographie encourages the blind, the visually impaired and the sighted to experience the show by keeping all senses alert, contemplating and dialoguing about the nature and limitations of vision.
Artist Bios
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Gaia Squarci
Gaia Squarci is a photographer and videographer who divides her time between Milan and New York City, where she teaches Digital Storytelling at ICP. Gaia is an IWMF fellow and a National Geographic grantee, as well as a contributor for Prospekt. With a background in Art History and Photojournalism, she leans towards a personal approach that distances itself from the descriptive narrative tradition in documentary photography and video. Her work focuses on themes linked to the relationship between human beings and the environment, domestic violence, and family relationships.
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Andrea Cancellieri
Andrea Cancellieri is a visual artist and performer born and raised in Milan, Italy. He majored in Engraving in 2014 from Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, and his research ranges from digital media to raw materials and assemblage. Andrea has worked as a designer with advertising companies, fashion brands, magazines and film productions.
Organizations
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L’Oeil de la Photographie
The Eye of Photography is the ultimate digital magazine where everything about photography is published daily, highlighted, discussed and archived for all professionals and amateurs to see… for free. Whether you are working in this industry as a buyer or a collector, in a festival or a gallery, as a professional or simply an amateur enthusiast of photography, The Eye was made for you. The Eye informs you of the latest trends, record breaking auctions, breaking news, reveals a long awaited book publication, shares the discovery of up and coming stars, allows you to read in depth interviews and offers all you need to know about the next must see exhibition whether you live in New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo or Shanghai.
The Eye was born from the realization that no site on the web today regroups events, news and updates of the photography world all in one place. We believe that at a time when 1 billion people communicate through images using Facebook, Instagram, Flicker and other social media sites, it is time for Photography to have a place where all its forms, colors and trends can be expressed, visualized and archived.
Translated every day in English, French, and now Chinese, The Eye wants to be the indispensable search tool for all the who’s-who and what’s-what in photography, as well as a place of inspiration for all amateurs and photography lovers. It has already become the most trusted and recognized web based photography magazine read by all professionals around the globe.
Broken Screen
Featuring: Gaia Squarci Andrea Cancellieri
Curated by: Laurence Cornet
Locations
View Location Details Brooklyn Bridge Park – Pier 5 UplandsBrooklyn,
NY 11201
Location open 24 hours
