THE CREATION OF THE WORLD IS AN ORDINARY DAY
There exists a new anthropology of the imagination.
The fantastic has crossed the threshold of art, myth and ritual and has spilled over into the mental labour of ordinary people in many societies.
The Creation of the World is an Ordinary Day is a photographic piece that began in Estonia and took concrete form as a series of artistic postcards. Inspired by an ancient Baltic tale of the origins of the world, it is based on the re-assembling of semantic fragments whose cosmogonic story is put in relation to the small sacredness of everyday objects, evoking that mystery of the nature of time and culture that has fascinated man since ancient times.
Created within a context of otherness, The Creation looks at practices of exchange and reciprocal interaction between different subjects and cultural perspectives. A story is not born from a single place, it can travel from person to person, from one language to another, and when this happens the mind must be free to reflect and to change in accordance with that knowledge. The world is a container of stories that are in constant recreation, and the photographic project is the intermediary for the formulation of a new multicultural and collective story, free of language barriers or any barriers of form and content.
The installation consists of an interactive / multimedia section curated by Carlo Gioia.
Project presented in Giovane Fotografia Italiana #08 | RECONSTRUCTION
© Elena Zottola
© Elena Zottola
© Elena Zottola
© Elena Zottola
© Elena Zottola
BIO
ELENA ZOTTOLA
(Maratea, 1995)
After finishing a degree in art at the Paolo Toschi Institute of Art in Parma, Zottola moved to Naples where she took a degree in anthropology of heritage. Here she also undertook multidisciplinary studies at Davide Iodice’s Elementary School of Theatre, where she became interested in photography. She has attended workshops on the theme of public art organised by the artist couple Bianco-Valente, including Scenari by the Milanese photographer Maurizio Montagna.
In 2018 she had the chance to study abroad at the photography and contemporary arts department of the Estonia Academy of Arts in Tallinn, which allowed her to combine her university training with her passion for photography. Here she created the opera-performance The Creation Of The World Is An Ordinary Day, under the supervision of Camille Laurelli as part of the Rivista project.
In 2019 she returned to Naples and is currently studying at the Centro di Fotografia Indipendente directed by Mario Spada, Biagio Ippolito and Luca Anzani. In collaboration with the Centre she has created her second photographic series titled Prosféro which has attracted significant attention. She also takes part in Aaron Schuman’s masterclass On Photography & Writing, hosted by the Photo Words Lab.
Zottola is continuing her postgraduate studies in anthropology with the intention of being able to use academic study to enrich the content of her photographic practice.