Irene Fenara's Surveillance Poetics at Galleria ZERO… Milano

Irene Fenara (Bologna, 1990) presents new works at Galleria ZERO… in Milan's Corvetto district for her solo show 'Grandi lucenti' (until March 30, 2024). The exhibition explores the poetic potential of surveillance camera imagery, where algorithms capture landscapes and lights that appear timeless. Works include large video projections (Supervision, (Storm)), light wells, sculptural screens (Supervision (Aerial leaves)), and photographic prints on tracing and baryta paper. The title references how light (and its absence) shapes both creation and viewing. The images are geographically unplaceable and often unidentifiable, shifting in dimension and color (though all in black and white) as natural elements interfere with observation. Fenara's practice questions photography's documentary function, applied to surveillance systems that supposedly record reality but instead reinterpret visual data. She infiltrates camera systems when possible, capturing low-resolution images with chromatic alterations. No text accompanies the exhibition; the process remains unrevealed, and stormy locations need no geolocation. Every effect, reflection, and distortion becomes the image's essence.