Francesco Jodice

Francesco Jodice, (Napoli, 1967)

Francesco Jodice è nato a Napoli nel 1967. Vive a Milano. La sua ricerca artistica indaga i mutamenti del paesaggio sociale contemporaneo, con particolare attenzione ai fenomeni di antropologia urbana e alla produzione di nuovi processi di partecipazione. I suoi progetti mirano alla costruzione di un terreno comune tra arte e geopolitica, proponendo la pratica artistica come poetica civile. Insegna al Biennio di Arti Visive e Studi Curatoriali e al Master in Photography and Visual Design presso NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti di Milano. È stato tra i fondatori dei collettivi Multiplicity e Zapruder. Ha partecipato a grandi mostre collettive come Documenta, la Biennale di Venezia, la Biennale di São Paulo, la Triennale dell’ICP di New York, la seconda Biennale di Yinchuan e ha esposto al Castello di Rivoli (Torino), alla Tate Modern (Londra) e al Prado (Madrid). Tra i suoi progetti principali ci sono l’atlante fotografico What We Want, un osservatorio sulle modificazioni del paesaggio in quanto proiezione dei desideri collettivi, l’archivio di pedinamenti urbani The Secret Traces e la trilogia di film sulle nuove forme di urbanesimo Citytellers. I suoi lavori più recenti – Atlante, American Recordings, West e Rivoluzioni – esplorano i possibili scenari futuri dell’Occidente.

English

Many aspects of human society and behavior are seeing big changes in the urban environment. With many problems that are presenting themselves as a result of the modern way of life, our humanity and the many forms it manifests in are daily being put to the test. Exploring and documenting these changes while merging his knowledge of anthropology and photography is the Italian artist Francesco Jodice. A professor of Urban Visual Anthropology at the Master in Art and Curatorial studies at NABA as well as a professor of Photography at Forma, Jodice emphasizes the importance of bringing together art and geopolitics.
With his artistic practice including photography, architecture and film, the Italian artist born in 1967 in Naples often focuses on the social landscape of one or multiple cultures and the norms that surround it. It might not be obvious at first sight, but the photographs he takes are about more than what meets the eye at first sight. Capturing moments and scenery distinct for a certain district and culture, his images embody the essence of cultural conditions and represent the social landscape of the region. Although they exhibit aesthetic beauty, his photos and films primarily focus on changes and phenomena in urban anthropology following the modern social atmosphere. His project What We Want, portraying a worldwide social atlas, is perhaps the best representative of this ideology.
Forcing a confrontation with reality and its political, social and economical aspects, the works of Francesco Jodice have been exhibited widely and with a lot of success. His research projects follow various aspects of social behavior and circumstances, and some of them include 100 Stories, presenting photographs of people unaware that they are being recorded; Natura, a series of studies following criminal events and strange occurrences happening in different rural areas around the globe; Secret Traces, an experiment and archive based on human shadowing, and others. Exhibiting in both solo and group shows including the exhibitions at Documenta in Kassel (2001), the Venice Biennale (2003), the ICP Triennial of Photography and Video in New York (2006), the São Paulo Art Biennial (2006), the Tate Modern London (2006) and the Museo del Prado in Madrid (2011).
His work is a testament to the value of his artistic skills as much as the importance of the relationship between art and humanity. Representing and documenting reality along with its political and economical aspects, Francesco Jodice portrays the social landscape and the anomalies that permeate it. With expertise in both anthropology and photography, the artwork of Francesco Jodice presents a valuable input for both the artistic world and contemporary social inquiries.