Workplaces as spaces of relationships: photographer Mario Siragusa's exhibition

With the exhibition Massimo Siragusa. Workplaces, from June 10 to July 23, 2021, Other Size Gallery in Milan opens, through the works of photographer Mario Siragusa (Catania, 1958), a reflection on the extraordinarily topical theme of the social value of workplaces understood as spaces for relationships, creativity, training, and not just productivity.

The narrative of the exhibition develops from the ambiguity of the title: if the locution “workplace” in fact indicates a stable occupation, it also designates, in a more literal way, the physical place where this occupation takes place. On the subtle threshold between these two meanings rests the selection of the twelve photographs on display, generating an effect of estrangement: workplaces are not just “containers,” but spaces in which the aesthetic and architectural dimensions-which appear Apollonian in the lens of the Catanian photographer-play a fundamental role in the construction of society and individual identity.

From the workshop of La Scala Theater to the spaces of the Circolo Volta in Milan, from the rooms of the National Central Library in Rome to the pavilions of the Rimini Fair, from the canteen of the Army Training and Application School Command in Turin to the industrial hangars of Fincantieri, these are some of the workplaces that Massimo Siragusa chooses to immortalize. In the exhibition itinerary, always following the logic of doubling and estrangement, the twelve works are presented in six diptychs combined by analogy or juxtaposition looking at geometries and architectural elements, lights and colors, but also at their intended uses, in a merry-go-round of visual stimuli.

Taken between 2005 and 2017, the nucleus of works in the exhibition stems from a reconnaissance carried out in the photographer’s archive with a contemporary gaze, which could not disregard the reflections on the theme of work that the Covid-19 emergency has generated in recent months: the places photographed by Siragusa, although used to accommodate the swarming of work by dozens of people, are characterized by the absence of the human figure. What prevails is the investigation of the beauty and geometry of the buildings, in the style of an architectural and landscape photographer. Yet, the work is evoked in power, the impression of the action of those who live those places daily is palpable.

The absence of the human figure, of those who every day go to their workplaces within those places, in Massimo Siragusa’s images is a choice of style, in the eyes of those who look at them today, it irrevocably evokes an imagery linked to the pandemic current events.

Massimo Siragusa is a photographer and artistic director of Plenum Gallery in Catania and a lecturer at IED. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Vatican Museums, the Galleria di Arte Contemporanea in Rome, the Mart in Rovereto, and the Museo di Roma in Trastevere, and have been exhibited in numerous galleries in Italy and abroad. He has published in the most important international newspapers and with his corporate works has told the reality of major Italian industries. He has won numerous awards, including four World Press Photo awards (2nd in the Daily Life category in 1997, winner in the Arts Stories category in 1999, 2nd in the Arts Stories category in 2008, and 3rd in the Contemporary Issues category in 2008). He has published the books The Vatican, The Magic Circle, Believe, 12 Portals, Theater of Italy, The Thrill of Vertigo, Breathe the Walls, The Big Cretto, Magic Coppedè, Rome.

For all information you can visit Workness’ official website.

Pictured: Massimo Siragusa, Workshop working on the sets of La Scala Theater, Milan (2006)

Workplaces as spaces of relationships: photographer Mario Siragusa's exhibition

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