MACRO Fall 2010
MACRO via Reggio Emilia
October 26, 2010 - February 6, 2011
www.en.macro.roma.museum

This Saturday I went to view the current exhibitions at the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma (MACRO). The theme of the exhibit, which was a part of the international photography festival, was Futurespectives. The idea attached to Futurespectives is whether or not a photo can represent the future? A team of three curators, Marco Delogu, Marc Prust, and Valentina Tanni worked together in order to display a wide range photographic styles. Some of the artists included in the exhibit include: Tod Papageorge, Jaime Martinez, Jon Rafman, Justin Kemp, Martjin Hendriks, Phillip Toledano, and many others.

One particular artist whose work caught my attention, and who I felt did a great job in representing the concept of representing the future through photography was Tod Papageorge. The American artist began his career in the New York City in the 1960 through the street photography movement. A common theme that I noticed in the artist’s photographs was the representation of delicacy.

In this piece (which was did not have an identification card) we can see a man in the foreground holding a baby, while in the background there is a woman and many other people walking and going on with their day. It looks as though the characters in the piece are in an airport or perhaps a bus terminal. Moreover, the setting appears to be a very fast-paced and busy place. However, by setting the man who is grasping the baby as the focal point of the photograph Papageorge successfully slows down the scene through the display of delicacy. More specifically, this idea of delicacy is magnified through details such as the man is holding the child with both hands, the child’s hand can be seen grasping at the man’s shirt, and the man’s facial expression is one that is very careful. An additional interesting aspect to take note of is the older man in the background who is holding a box. In this scenario, the idea of delicacy is somewhat reverse in the sense that we have become familiar with packages that are labeled “fragile”, but in this case, it is the old man who is fragile. Moreover, Papageorge has again symbolized the notion of delicacy through the old man.

In addition to projecting a (personal) theme of delicacy, Tod Papageorge also complies with the overall exhibit’s theme of Futurespectives.

In this piece, whose title is also unknown, we see construction workers in the process of lifting and/or moving a glass. In the background we can see ladders, as well as construction tools. All of three of the men are scrunched as they are clutching the glass with both hands. An interesting aspect of the piece to notice is the fact that the cobblestones are visible. The cobblestones can be considered a representation of antiquity, or an ancient world. The ambiguity of where the glass will be placed (whether in a new building or an old building) creates a near perfect synopsis for a perspective of our future. In other words, while most would like to assume that in the future architecture (as with most things) will continue to advance and further modernize we really cannot be certain that perhaps at some point modernization may be buried by architects who want to pay homage to the classical antiquity through the aesthetics of their architecture.

When we combine Papageorge’s theme of delicacy with the idea of ambiguity of the future we can draw the possible conclusion that perhaps the photographer’s perspective of the future is that the future itself is delicate and that is due to the ambiguity linked with time. In clearer term, because we do not know what is to come of the future, and rather can only make predictions, we must treat the future delicately, we must handle the present moment with extra care because we do not know (for sure) what is to come in the future.

Overall, MACRO’s Futurespectives exhibit was a great eye candy and also a mental stimulant. There were many themes presented, and they all were relatively sensible to perceptions of the future.