The photo exhibition 'Scarti Scelti' opens in Yangzhou

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The exhibition 'Scarti Scelti/Select Discards' by Professor Riccardo Zipoli opened on Monday 8 January 2024, at the Marco Polo Memorial Hall in Yangzhou (China). It had first been on show at Ca’ Foscari Zattere in 2019.

The official opening took place in the presence of authorities from Yangzhou Municipality, the Italian Consul General in Shanghai, Tiziana D’Angelo, and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Shanghai, Francesco D’Arelli. Representatives of the Italian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and several Chinese media also attended the event.

Until 12 March 2024, the prestigious Marco Polo Memorial Hall will host a selection of photos - 24 out of the original fifty "selected discards" that make up the eponymous volume published by Prof. Zipoli in 2019 (Scarti scelti, Sovrimpressioni tipografiche da In Domo Foscari/Select Discards, Printing Superimpositions from In Domo Foscari, Marsilio, Venice 2019).

The exhibition’s origin is rather unusual. In 2018, Ca' Foscari University celebrated the 150th anniversary of its foundation with a series of special events and with the publication of the volume "In Domo Foscari, memories and images of a university", gathering Riccardo Zipoli ‘s photographs of the various university venues and buildings in the historic centre of Venice. The proofs made at the printing house were sometimes made on discarded paper, used to test the same series of images. As a result, some unique and striking overprinted images were accidentally created and, eventually, became a new exhibition.

This new display was conceived to present an international audience with the history of Ca' Foscari and its invaluable historical and artistic background, showcasing skills and knowledge of our university community. The photographer’s gaze will guide visitors through the places depicted, accompanied by the voice of former Ca' Foscari student Elena Pizzolitto, under the supervision of Prof. Elisabetta Molteni, who wrote all the exhibition notes that provide valuable historical and artistic context to Zipoli's images.

BIO

Riccardo Zipoli (b. Prato, 1952) is professor emeritus of Persian Language and Literature at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, where he taught Persian Language and Literature (1975-2018) and Creation and Production of Photography (2010-2018). His first photographic exhibitions were at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (1976), Il Diaframma Gallery in Milan (1977) and the XIV São Paulo Biennale (1977). In 1978, he graduated in Directing and Cinematography from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. He had shows at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (2008) and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (2009), while his collection "Venice in the Windows" was hosted in various European cities (2013-2016). In 2016, he was the Artistic Director of the Toscana Foto Festival’s under-35 project. His book In Domo Foscari, Memories and Images of a University won the 2019 Hemingway Prize for Photography. A gallery of his photographs is available on www.riccardozipoli.com