C Photo: Real Venice

Ivorypress presents Real Venice, a monographic photography project, curated by Elena Ochoa Foster, founder and CEO of Ivorypress. The initiative is included in the exhibition programme for the 54th Venice Biennale and is the subject for the upcoming issue of the publication C Photo.

This entirely charitable project has been produced jointly with the Venice in Peril Fund with the goal of raising funds for the city of Venice. Fourteen internationally renowned photographers were invited to create a portfolio on Venice with absolute freedom. Lynne Cohen, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Antonio Girbés, Nan Goldin, Pierre Gonnord, Dionisio González, Candida Höfer, Tiina Itkonen, Mimmo Jodice, Tim Parchikov, Matthias Schaller, Jules Spinatsch, Hiroshi Watanabe and Robert Walker portrayed the Italian city through their lens, showing it in all its beauty, but also in all its paradoxes and contrasts.

The ravages wrought by mass tourism and the rise of the water level is captured in the portfolios created by these artists for the project. ‘Without good science, wise decision-making and a long term, well planned budget (the last two are conspicuously lacking), Venice has no future’, explained Anna Somers Cocks, chairperson of the Venice in Peril Fund, during the presentation of the project.

The selected photographers also address the everyday life of the city’s inhabitants, its classic monuments and modern architecture, among other issues. This is ‘a necessary initiative that harnesses the creativity, the vigour, the internationalism – and the financial power – of contemporary art to saving Venice, an exquisite city where art has always been of the essence’, according to Somers Cocks.

Published by Ivorypress, the latest issue of C Photo reproduces the portfolios of the chosen photographers in two bilingual editions (Spanish-English and Italian-English). The publication will also include essays by Maria Antonella Pelizzari, professor of History of Photography at Hunter College; Claudio Piersanti, writer and playwright; and William A. Ewing, former director of Musée de l’Elysée (Lausanne, Switzerland).

The photos in Real Venice will be on exhibit from 31 May in the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, after which it will then travel to London. One edition of each portfolio will be auctioned on 3 November 2011 at Phillips de Pury with funds going to the Venice in Peril Fund.

It is anticipated that the exhibition will also become a touring exhibition from January 2012, showing at many of the world’s major international art institutions. The tour will be organised by the International Enterprises department of the Barbican Centre in London.

The advisory board behind the project comprises: Anna Somers Cocks, chairperson of the Venice in Peril Fund and group editorial director of The Art Newspaper; David Landau, collector, businessman and scholar; Elena Ochoa Foster, curator, founder and CEO of Ivorypress; and Erica Bolton from the Bolton & Quinn cultural communication consultancy.