(Finance) – 2024 was an important year for Jacopo Di Ceramarked by an artistic production that has managed to intertwine technology, social commitment and visual experimentation. From the themes of resilience and strength told in Souls at the Dynamo Art Galleryto generational dialogue with Massimo Vitali in Suspendedthe artist explored new perspectives, both zenith and interior, showing his ability to innovate photography, transforming it into a universal language for narrating life stories and promoting solidarity projects.
After the charity auction which saw him as the protagonist with his work, we met Jacopo Di Cera to hear about his poetics and commitment.
This year saw you bring Souls to the Dynamo Art Gallery, a work that combines art and therapy. Can you tell us how this experience was born and what meaning do you attribute to the use of shadows to tell the story of the resilience and strength of the parents of the Dynamo Camp kids?
We met with dynamo during their exhibition 2 years ago at the Triennale in Milan, an intense exhibition full of different works by artists who had participated in Dynamo’s activities over time. From there an attraction was born which then materialized in a project that took place in May 2024. At the entrance to Dynamo camp there is a writing, quotes from some children who have lived the experience and it says “The only The negative aspect of Dynamo camp is that it cannot be told.” Hence the idea of bringing a theme of “change of point of view”, a theme that is very dear to me and that I wanted both to convey through a work co-generated with parents and to make it become a more practical “mission” for the parents themselves who had to carry it out independently during the workshop. This journey was very intense and the parents presented me with profound, intense works, rich in life and in themselves.
For me, the shadow is, in fact, a way of representing the soul, of telling what happens inside and what a person wants to tell me about themselves in that moment or what we want to tell together. A representation that can only be reflected through this form and that a traditional portrait would not be able to convey. Putting them together was then a path that united all these “souls” creating a unique and, in my opinion, enormous strength.
In 2024 you further explored the use of drones and zenithal perspectives, as in Sospesi alla Maison Bosi. How does this technical choice enrich your ability to tell social stories and what does overcoming traditional visual hierarchies represent for you?
I began the journey of telling the story of Italianness from a different point of view, that is, from above and perpendicular – almost in God’s eye – in 2016 with the advent of the first drones. Objects that I had always observed from a distance but which immediately caught my attention. Then I took the first flight, I still remember, in Procida, an image that I sensed from below, a very “Italian” scene, that is, of boats approaching each other at lunchtime to share the experience together and what everyone had brought to eat on board. A scene that I heard, but which I was only able to “see” from the drone. From there I said “I want to tell a different Italy”. There is no more depth of field, everything is crushed and we are all on the same level: a sort of social flattening that allows us to focus on what is happening, on the context, on the interconnections between people and between people and places.
A new way of seeing and telling ourselves. And this thanks to the advent of a new technology and a new way of shooting. A flying camera.
With works like Souls and Sospesi, this has been a significant year in your journey of fusion between art and social commitment. What have been the most important challenges and rewards in telling life stories through your visual language?
Ever since I picked up my first camera I have always had the urge to tell stories. To tell what you can’t always see. In a very early initial phase with reportages such as clandestine cockfighting in Cuba or the boys training in parkur on the roofs of Jerusalem. Life stories that allowed me to tiptoe into the world of photography.
Then I changed course and started designing artistic projects always linked to social themes such as “Until the end of the sea”, a project born from the remains of the migrants’ boats abandoned on the beach of Lampedusa and which allowed me to talk about a specific theme today still strongly contemporary like immigration but in a different key, more abstract and more material. In fact, the images of these details of the boats were then printed on pieces of wood and resined by hand. A “photomaterial” work that allowed me to tell other important stories for us such as the terrible Amatrice earthquake (with the Noise of Absence project) and a topic very dear to me such as commuting with MiRo (Milan – Rome).
In 2024 you used photography to give voice to often invisible stories. How do you perceive the role of photography today, in a context increasingly fragmented and digital, and what contribution do you want to make through your shots?
Photography has allowed me to tell many, many stories. Photography is a fantastic weapon that has allowed us to know what we cannot always see. Photography as art and as a storytelling tool must absolutely be protected and valorised especially in a context of over production which has occurred through the transition from analogue to digital and which we will have even more with new technologies such as generative AI. The production of “images” and not “photographs” will be increasingly greater, but this should not be a problem but an opportunity. I never see the changes in their “dark” side but I always try to observe the other side of the moon. Having a lot of production will allow us to raise the quality, to become increasingly selective and to lead artists, photographers and storytellers to raise the bar higher and higher.
Toscani told his students that he once drove a donkey around the Milan Cathedral with a camera attached to it that took a photo every 5 seconds. Among those hundreds of photos there was certainly a beautiful photo, a “wow” photo that could tell something interesting about Milan. But there wasn’t a thought, there wasn’t a plan, there wasn’t a study, a path. Here, this is what a photographer must do, go through in order to stand out and grow in his art and his stories, in a period where we certainly do not have a famine of images, but a famine of quality time, to observe, understand and feel.
In Sospesi, an exhibition at the Bosi Gallery in Rome, you spoke with Massimo Vitali, exploring the evolution of Italian identity. How did you experience this generational comparison in 2024, and what message do you want to convey about contemporary Italy through your artistic perspective?
The dialogue with Massimo was a very fascinating journey. We managed to tell three stories, three important stories of our country, with different visions, times and methods. Massimo enters the scene and talks about every single character, in his role and in his level of protagonism in the image through a “prince’s point of view”. My work instead helps to see the scene and experience the subjects through a neutral, elevated eye, a sort of “eye of God”, putting everyone on the same level, on a single level.
Still talking about solidarity, in November 2024, during the charity event in the Edit Porto Urbano spaces in Turin, your works were intertwined with Dynamo Camp’s mission to support children suffering from serious pathologies. What role do you think art has in raising awareness and supporting solidarity projects like those promoted by Dynamo Camp?
Art is the universal language par excellence. Art helps to enter hearts and minds in the simplest way possible. Therefore art has the honor and burden of being able to speak to everyone and help everyone to talk about issues on which strong awareness and consequent support must arise. We worked with the parents of the children at the Dynamo camp through artistic language: everyone was able to express and bring out thoughts and emotions through art. It was a beautiful journey, a unique connection, and art was the medium.
(Photo: Hart Studio)