Romina Pilotti
Ric-amati. Fili d'arte e parole
Romina Pilotti
Since she was a child, she loved to draw and browse for hours and hours the family photo albums; as an adult, she began to read several books on photography and to know, through many exhibitions, the big names in the history of photography and minor photographers. Only for some years her interest in photography has become exclusive, and she shoots, therefore, with a certain continuity experimenting with various genres. She defines herself as eclectic and curious, passionate about ethical photography and for more than a year she has been engaged in designing projects on social issues, mainly related to the female
world and the redemption of women. With her photographs with a simple, harmonious and devoid of quirks style, she has participated in many group exhibitions in Italy, in particular in Lombardy:
- "Essentia floralis" at the Council Chamber of Inveruno (MI) in 2016;
- International Audiovisual Arts Festival "Dia sotto le stelle" at MalpensaFiere in Busto Arsizio (VA),
in 2016 and 2017;
- "Unusual connection" at Palazzo Marino, seat of the Municipality of Milan in 2017;
- "Ability day" reportage on disability, "Homage to the '900: Emilio Tadini", respectively in 2017 and
2018; "Refugees" on the condition of the mondine in post-war Italy at the Spazio Tadini House
Museum in Milan and "Novegro Photo Day" at Parco Esposizioni Novegro (MI) in 2019;
- "BookCity Milano" at Art Marginem concept room in Milan in 2019.
She loves to work by exploiting the natural light that she manages with confidence, always trying to enhance the human being she respects for his dignity and towards whom she continues to nourish a sense of amazement. She is currently presenting his first solo exhibition "Ric-amati. Fili d'arte e parole", a project that sees the contamination of various arts – sculpture, dance, music, poetry, prose – to pay homage to the figure of the woman and her role within the family and the work environment. Every event she creates is a hymn to life, to love, to sharing, to bonds, to the knots that every woman knows how to weave against gender violence and against all violence. The exhibition "Ric-amati" has been exhibited, so far, at: the library of Gaggiano (MI), the Library of Inveruno (MI), the Broletto Museum of Novara, the Library of Legnano (MI), the Civic Museum of the City of Castano Primo (MI), Sala Artemedia in Cervia (RA). The "Ric-amati" project has also been included in the event organized by the Municipality of Milan "The talents of women", year 2020. Romina Pilotti took part in the 16th edition of Milano Photofestival 2021 from 22 September 2021 to 06 October 2021. She participated in the photographic project "La rinascita" curated by Maria Cristina Brandini and in
the related publication, presented at the University of Insubria in Como, on December 18, 2021
Ric-amati. Fili d'arte e parole is a photographic project created to enhance the female figure in her battles towards a more authentic emancipation; it makes use of the power of images and the word as a source of rebirth and awareness for women; poetry and art are a need, a lifeline and at the same time a way to regain possession of one's skin and reach unexpected awareness. The project began in December 2017 and consists of about thirty photographs concerning the hands of women that the author met and portrayed on the street, in public gardens or in the intimacy of their homes when they embroider, use the sewing machine, work on knitting or crochet, bobbin, in which they weave ropes to create tapestries, etc.
All the photos, both those taken indoors and outdoors, have been taken with essential photographic
equipment, using only natural light and with little or no post-production intervention. The subjects
were portrayed in a domestic or outdoor environment and were caught in their daily lives.
Born as a metaphorical project – the first exhibition was presented with the deliberately provocative
title "With the rifle loaded", named after a biography of the American poet Emily Dickinson -, it
underlines how art is the best form of defense for women, not bullets and physical strength.
This project has continued over time and has extended to portray the hands of women in other
parts of the world, acquiring a documentary value. Romina Pilotti has searched for and portrayed
women of Dublin, ancient works some dating back to the Celtic era, techniques that seemed
forgotten, lost, lace of the late nineteenth century, embroidery of Dubrovnik, Central Italy, etc.
The hands are the part of the body that more than the eyes represent the character, the emotions,
the experience of a person; with our hands we communicate with the outside world, because they
are able to give and receive, they are a symbol of the ability to face the world, the part of us with
which we touch, caress, love. Over time these photographs have become a tool to re-evaluate manual work, which today's society tends to consider, of less value than the intellectual one, the hands as a symbol of creativity, strength, capacity that women have. But images are not enough: the word is needed to give them a broader meaning. It is the word that the human lacks to create positive, healthy relationships.
"Men kill, when a relationship falls apart, because they don't find the words." This was written,
among others, by the psychoanalyst Massimo Recalcati:
"Violence against women is an unbearable form of violence because it destroys speech as a
fundamental condition of the relationship between the sexes. We notice one thing: rapes, torture,
femicides, mistreatment of all kinds that many women suffer, abolish the law of speech, are
consumed in the headless and brutal silence of the drive of the drive or in the humiliation of insult
and verbal aggression. The law of speech as the law that unites humans in mutual recognition is
broken. This law is not written, it does not appear in the books of law, it is not a legal norm. But this law is
the ethical commandment of every civilization. It affirms that the human cannot enjoy everything,
cannot know everything, cannot have everything, cannot be everything. It affirms that what
constitutes the human is the experience of the limit."
My passion for photography has always been in me, even if only a few years ago it has become my exclusive interest.
I am a curious and open photographer, interested in portraiture, in particular in women's and the human body. Photographer to understand myself and the female world; by my choice, the subjects of my works are ordinary people and not models. My photographs are mainly in color, but I have a black and white soul. I prefer strong contrasts and bright colors and the vertical format to the horizontal one. I use essential equipment, because I believe in research and ideas more than in the fanaticism of technique.
I follow the works of various photographers, in particular I like Mario Giacomelli, Peter Lindbergh,
Paolo Roversi, Carlo Carletti. My photographic projects are focused on self-portraits, women, the human body and the relationship between woman and Nature.
Ric-amati