Martina della Valle's 'Unexpected Neighbors' at NonostanteMarras, Milan

The exhibition 'Unexpected Neighbors' by Martina della Valle (born 1981 in Florence, based in Berlin) is on view at NonostanteMarras, a multifunctional space in Milan, as part of the 2018 Photo Vogue Festival. Produced by Metronom, an organization promoting contemporary visual culture, the show is curated by Marcella Manni, founder of Metronom. The venue, a former workshop near via Tortona, complements the artist's dialogue with Eastern culture. The exhibition features works from della Valle's recent past, including the series 'Wabi-Sabi' (2015), which originated from a box of negatives found during a trip to Japan. These were reworked in the darkroom through 1:1 contact prints. Black-and-white diptychs alternate with rayograms of natural elements and large-format color photographs, all embodying the wabi-sabi aesthetic of imperfection and impermanence, as theorized by architect Leonard Koren. Also on display is the ongoing project 'One flower, One leaf', an archive of botanical still lifes and urban textures developed through site-specific workshops across Italy and Europe. The centerpiece is a large installation created with Ikebana master Satoko Hatayama, using native botanical elites and discarded branches and leaves to explore a secret balance. The exhibition reflects on the dynamic relationship between humans and territory, identity and nature.