Facing Venice is a project in itself as well as is the initial project for a larger project "Mediterranean ring", researching the identity of Mediterranean as our lager common living space.

Working title :  Venetians in Venice about Venice, Expressing the identity, "Facing Venice"

> 19. 3. 2009 <

proposed by : Bojan Brecelj / Slovenian artist  photographer

• Keywords : art (research) project, self-portraits, Venetians,  photography, photography exhibition, group exhibition

As a photographer who has through the years many times worked on the theme of Venice (5 published books and one extensive article), and as an artist who in 1978 represented Yugoslavia in Bienalle of Art in Venice, I am proposing to do another work, a portrait photography exhibition that would be accomplished with Venetians in Venice about Venice.

Short description of the project :

My aim for this project is to do a work of art (media  photography and sound) which would express  identity of Venice through the people who live and work here.
The body of work would be photographs - self-portraits done on different location in the town and short interviews with potrayed people.
Portraits and interviews would be done with citizens of Venice willing to participate in the project by expressing themselves visually and verbally within the context of  their relationship with Venice.

First portrait :

The results of this project would be presented in photography exhibition (and sound installation) as well as in printed publication - photographs and text from the interviews.
Presumably one third of project would be accomplished with my own documentary photos from the live situation of the people living here.
Why images and not just words? Images are more complex information, and experiencing the quality and wholeness of the personality and identity, images /portraits and specifically and specifically self-portrait do show that.  Then, words expressing thoughts and ideas give different but complementary aspect to the images. 

The Tool :

• The tool developed for self-portraying, where person view her/himself in the mirror and trigger camera (which is behind the mirror) in its own moment, gives unique results reflecting creativity and open-hearted being.
• The official site of self-portrait by this system is www.selfportraitstudios.com. The system that is an invention by itself is developed by myself. The intellectual rights- the principe of doing portrait photography through the mirror is registered by cc rights. It is an open code logic, which mens that everybody can use and develop the system under conditions that all can be copied and developed on.
• Self-portrait Set up is designed for use on location, outside or inside any location, and do the portraying with realistic background under professional light conditions.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS : The exhibition is actually Group exhibition: 

Since portraits are actually at least co-created by those who would make self-portraits, and tell there story, the exhibition is actually a group one! And everybody participating would be named as an author!
The initial concept, the tool itself, and the aesthetics is developed and done by Bojan Brecelj 
Short CV: on separate page.

Facing Venice is a project in itself as well as is the initial project for a larger project "Mediterranean ring", researching the identity of Mediterranean as our lager common living space.

Bojan Brecelj
8th July 2009