Giorgio Ciam
ESSERE UN ALTRO

Description

The volume is the catalogue of the exhibition by Giorgio Ciam, “Essere un altro” (Being Someone Else), curated by Elena Re and held at the Reggia di Venaria.
An iconic element of the work of Giorgio Ciam (Pont-Saint-Martin, 1941 – Turin, 1996) is that of transformation, with which he experimented between 1972 and 1974. There is also a wonderful artist’s book by him entitled Essere un altro (Being Someone Else) documenting this cycle of works, and it is worth noting that Germano Celant displayed it in the exhibition The Small Utopia. Ars Multiplicata at the Fondazione Prada, Venice, in 2012. Ciam’s transformation introduces a theme that Woody Allen would bring to the fore ten years later in his film Zelig. At the same time, it might technically be interpreted as a sort of ‘Photoshop’ avant le mot.
The artist adopts the identity of another person, making two different worlds coexist and using photography as if it were painting. This exhibition features a major work by Ciam entitled Sulla pelle (On the Skin), 1974, from the series Essere un altro. It consists of a series of twelve large photo canvases using photomontage and pictorial interventions, where Ciam’s face transforms into that of his friend the artist George Segal. From one canvas to the next, a new portrait appears: that of a new individual, emerging from the portrait of Ciam. (from the critical text by Elena Re)