Irene Fenara's work investigating mechanical gazes on display at Palazzo Braschi

The Museo di Roma in Palazzo Braschi is hosting until April 9, 2023 the seventh exhibition of Portfolio, a section of the Quotidiana exhibition cycle, conceived and produced by the Quadriennale di Roma, in collaboration with Roma Culture, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, which aims to delve into some of the most significant directions inItalian art of the 21st century. As part of Portfolio, eleven artists under 35 are presented in the exhibition once a month with a single work. Recounting their research is a portfolio developed by Gaia Bobò, curator-in-residence at the Quadriennale.

The protagonist of the seventh exhibition is Irene Fenara (Bologna, 1990). At the center of her work is the investigation into the functioning of mechanical gazes, understood as emanations of new subjectivities. The artist is interested in the “specificity” of individual devices, that is, how they are capable of restoring their own vision of the world, denying the claim of impersonality that would see them solely as productive and controlling organisms. One example is the vast body of work devoted to surveillance cameras, whose ordinary purpose the artist subverts, dwelling on the dimension of dysfunctionality and error. In this perspective, images no longer act as a vehicle of information, but rather of poetic speculation.

In the series Supervision (2018 - ongoing), the artist extrapolates stills from surveillance camera circuits with the aim of highlighting the unpredictability and subjectivity of possible interpretation. The selected images are views that are sometimes unrecognizable, abstracted, altered by manufacturing defects or the onset of external factors that overturn their primary function of control. The work exhibited, made in 2021, returns a view obscured by the uncontrolled growth of the foliage of a tree, whose colors appear altered by a machine defect. The surveillance function thus appears neutralized by the unknown represented by nature, which, like an interference, deflects the device toward an unexpected experience of poetic openness.

The exhibition is free admission and does not require reservations. It can be visited Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Image: Irene Fenara, Supervision, installation view (2021; print on blueback paper, 270 x 400 cm). Photo by Carlo Romano

Irene Fenara's work investigating mechanical gazes on display at Palazzo Braschi

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