People Do Water
Solo Show at OPR Gallery, Milano | May 15 - July 31, 2024
People Do Water (2013-2024) is a photographic archive of human beings while joining the sea, an observation of people mating with water. Hydrophilia is a sensual pleasure produced by physical contact with water or in relation to images of people immersed in water. This eco-sexual relation with the sea is an attempt to displace the margins between the body and the space around the body, the sea.
Technical details
Color and b/w film photographic series, 50 images + texts. Variable dimensions.
Exhibitions
Previewed at TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Canary Islands, Spain; Neue Galerie im Homannhaus, Augsburg, "A Process", exhibition (special edition book edited by Der Greif); Phroom, Authorials; Frieze Art, London, "Curated by Paul Smith and friends", exhibition; Der Greif, Artist Feature selection; Fotofilmic, short list selection, Canada; Salon Ligne Roset, public talk with Tommaso Cotroneo, London.
People Do Water | Benedetta Panisson | Opening: 15 May - h: 18.00 / 21.00
On view: 15 May - 31 July, 2024 | Monday - Friday / 14.30 - 18.00 and by appointment
EN
OPR Gallery is pleased to present People Do Water, Benedetta Panisson’s solo exhibition, a photographic project that came to life in 2013 as the artist's desire to define an archive of images depicting the subjects of her obsessive research, bodies immersed in the sea.
People Do Water continues Benedetta Panisson's research on erotic imagery in maritime spaces. The relationship between body and sea becomes a pleasure device and takes shape in hydrophilia: sexual arousal in diving into the sea, and in observing images of people in the water. The exhibition is a confidence: the artist's stakeouts to photograph on film bodies immersed in sea water, the voyeuristic aesthetic of close-ups, the performative action with the waves, the taboo-breaking responses in a video made by her daughter Anita. Panisson stages something so intimate that it belongs to everyone: the relationship with environmental space, which here is a perpetual, and physical, falling in love with the sea. The photographs are part of the personal archive taken by the artist, since childhood, on the beaches of the Venice Lido and continued on various shores.
People do Water was presented in 2016 at the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens as the beginning of a longterm project.
The sea is the center of Panisson's research: Guarda il Mare, 2004, in which the sea mesmerizes to the point of inactivity; Come to Venice, 2008-2013, a group performance on tides, exhibited at the Maison del l'UNESCO in Paris, at the TEA museum in Tenerife, and in the context of Contingent Movements Archive, platform of the Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Art Biennale; Excess Island, 2011-2021, in which queer oceanic cultures merge into photographic imagery; Island, Sex, Photography, doctoral research project at Durham University (UK); Sexual Display from the Abyss, 2021, on representations of a sexual act between two octopuses, presented at the 11th European Feminist Research Conference; The Sexuality of the Uncontacted, presented at Cambridge University, in 2022; and Sea Fist, a performance made in the waters of Vulcano, and published in the Queering Nature volume of the prestigious Antennae Journal, 2024.
ITA
OPR Gallery è lieta di presentare People Do Water, mostra personale di Benedetta Panisson, progetto fotografico che prende vita nel 2013 come volontà dell’artista di definire un archivio di immagini che ritraggono i soggetti della sua ricerca ossessiva, corpi immersi nel mare. People Do Water continua la ricerca di Benedetta Panisson sugli immaginari erotici negli spazi marittimi. La relazione tra corpo e mare diviene un dispositivo di piacere, e prende forma nell’idrofilia: eccitamento sessuale nell’immergersi nel mare, e nell’osservare immagini di persone in acqua. La mostra è una confidenza: gli appostamenti dell’artista per fotografare in pellicola i corpi immersi nell’acqua del mare, l’estetica voyeuristica dei close-up, l’azione performativa con le onde, le risposte che spezzano i taboo in un video realizzato da sua figlia Anita. Panisson mette in scena qualcosa di talmente intimo da appartenere a chiunque: la relazione con lo spazio ambientale, che qui è un innamoramento perpetuo, e fisico, per il mare. Le fotografie sono parte dell’archivio personale scattato dall’artista, fin da bambina, sulle spiagge del Lido di Venezia e proseguito in vari lidi.
People do Water fu presentato nel 2016 presso l’Onassis Cultural Centre di Atene, come inizio di un long term project.
Il mare è il centro della ricerca di Panisson: Guarda il Mare, 2004, in cui il mare ipnotizza fino al rendere inattivi; Come to Venice, 2008-2013, una performance collettiva sulle maree, esposta alla Maison del l’UNESCO di Parigi, al museo TEA di Tenerife, e nel contesto di Contingent Movements Archive, piattaforma del Padiglione delle Maldive della 55a Biennale Arte di Venezia; Excess Island, 2011-2021, in cui culture queer oceaniche si fondono in immaginari fotografici; Island, Sex, Photography, tesi di dottorato presso Durham University (UK); Sexual Display from the Abyss, 2021, sulle rappresentazioni di un atto sessuale tra due polpi, presentato all’11th European Feminist Research Conference; The Sexuality of the Uncontacted, presentato a Cambridge University, nel 2022, e Sea Fist, performance realizzata nelle acque di Vulcano, e pubblicata nel volume Queering Nature del prestigioso Antennae Journal, 2024.
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 1 min. abstract from 9 min. video installation | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | Still from video installation | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | Still from video installation | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024 | 1 min. abstract from 5 min. video installation | by Anita Panisson
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
People Do Water | Solo Show at OPR Gallery | 2024
Horizonte, mar, exceso, exorbitancia | Excess Island and People do Water @ TEA | 2019
https://teatenerife.es/actividad/taller-horizonte-mar-exceso-exorbitancia/1993?fbclid=IwAR3fcDjX-aRmMH_EE2xPKKfLSvgcyekGNrCj_Gth4da_CX5-io-EaH6NUE4
Phroom | Authorials | 2019 | https://phroommagazine.com/hydrophilia/
People do Water Preview at Der Greif, A Process, Exhibition at Neue Galerie im Homannhaus, Augsburg (2014) + special edition book:
http://process.dergreif-online.de/photographers/benedetta-panisson/
People do Water Preview, 2014, A Process special edition book, Der Greif, Germany
People do Water Preview at Fotofilmic, 2015, shortlisted. Canada: https://fotofilmic.com/?portfolio=benedetta-panisson-milan-italy