Olimpia Ferrari / Submerged

With the support of the Embassy of Italy in Russia

In ‘Submerged’ Olimpia investigate spirituality through the fusion of what she both calls ‘physical places of refuge’: Music and Churches of all Religions. Musical notes merge with the surrounding walls inside a monochromatic world.

Olimpia Ferrari is an Italian artist working and living in New York. She graduated with an MFA in Advanced Photographic Studies from Bard University — ICP in 2011. In her work she uses photography to interpret memory and the search for identity. A strong tension between anonymity and individuality is present in her pieces. She hides the private behind the public and the sense of identity becomes a product of manipulation. She plays loosely with narratives to sort out images and connections in order to investigate awareness.

A more recent group of photographs of churches interiors is more intimate; they bring back memories of the music heard within its walls and turn into text hand-engraved on the surfaces; a fabric-text painstakingly spread across columns, capitals and ribs that become taut and vibrant.
The moving, touching story ostensibly wants to convey that music always remains where it is played, trapped within its walls. We know that Heidegger, even after he announced his religious vocation, always made the sign of the cross when he walked past a church; he believed that in places where people prayed so often and for so long we are all closer to God.

Olimpia’s photos were inspired by a non-religious emotion and filial love flawlessly expressed in her patient search to use the photographic medium to overcome worn-out objectivity and find a casing for the soul.

Paolo Portoghesi, Abitare la Terra