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Vanitas: a contemporary vision
Spazio Lab-A, Cagliari | December 8 – 19, 2016

Curator A. Muratore

The exhibition Vanitas: A Contemporary Vision brings together photographic works by artists from different countries who engage with the theme of vanitas from a contemporary perspective. The works on display explore various aspects of contemporary society, reflecting on the relationship between humanity, images, beauty, death, and the ephemeral nature of existence—themes increasingly intertwined with the consumerist voracity that characterises today’s society.

Over the centuries, the phrase Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas has been interpreted in numerous ways. Its earliest manifestations in the visual arts date back to the Middle Ages, particularly in representations of the “Dance of Death,” whose figures served as a memento mori. It was above all in the Flemish world during the seventeenth century, however, that the theme of vanity, together with the still-life tradition, achieved its widest circulation. In a Europe marked by famine, war, and plague, the renewed scientific interest in reality and its meticulous descriptive investigation allowed these genres to take root, giving rise to a new secular iconography characterised by explicit references to the inevitability of death and the transience of existence.

The thematic and stylistic variations presented in this exhibition offer a broad overview of how photography today can convey new meanings through a renewed artistic vocabulary. This language gives expression to a new way of perceiving reality and provides a means of recognising and communicating the emerging symbols of contemporary society. At the same time, the exhibition proposes alternative interpretations of the very symbols through which art history has mediated the concept of vanity for centuries.

Text by Antonio Muratore

Works by Leonardo Magrelli; Brett Henrikson; Ryan Pechnick; Brooks Dierdorff