I am happy to present Vanessa Winship exhibition "Sweet Nothing" as part of the program of Canti&Discanti world festival in Foligno . I was asked by the organization of the festival to curate photo exhibition with the topic of Turkey and therefore I was pleased that Vanessa accepted to be exhibited. The exhibition will start with an opening at the CIAC Museum in Foligno on thursday 8th of July at 9.30PM
here some note from the series "Sweet Nothing" :
Until very recently many girls in these remote parts never stepped over the doorstep of a school playground. Attitudes about sending girls to schools is a complex mix of reasons, with traditional values being part of that compexity.
Increasingly conscious of this situation, the Turkish government and several other organisations launched a series of campaigns to get more girls into schools.Slowly the numbers of girls enrolling into the schools rose.
I wanted to make a series of portraits these girls on the borderlands. Knowing their status I wanted to give a small space for the girls to have a small moment of importance in front of a camera.
I decided to use this slower, formal way of making the pictures to create this space. Every frame was made at the same distance to ensure a kind of equality to each girl.I hoped symbol of the uniform, the distance in repetition, and the austerity of the landscape would represent one thing, but I also hoped more than anything, in the expressions of the girls faces, to draw attention to the idea of these young girls poised at the moment “just before”. The moment where possibility lies, a time where the presentation of self teeters into consciousness. I asked the group of girls to come forward with their chosen friends or with their sisters. Occasionally they come forward alone. Sometimes I asked to make another frame of an individual girl. The girls were a mix of emotions about this event, this small moment of theatre in front of them. They were excited and curious all at the same time. Many things touched me during the making of these images. I was touched by the gravity in their demeanour at the moment in front of the camera, their fragility, their simplicity, their grace, their closeness to one another, but most of all I was struck by their complete lack of posturing and their complete innocence.
