Output details

UXB - Exhibition of photographs commissioned by Museum of Art for the XXI Century, Rome 2007.

Much of Seawright’s photographic work has examined landscape narrative and the phenomenology of place, exploring the relationship between the artwork and memory, particularly in locations related to conflict (but not those locations overtly memorialized as landscape monuments e.g. memorial gardens, war cemeteries, historic battlefields). These works are landscapes of concealment from the Trentino region of Northern Italy. Using Aerial Interdiction Mapping conducted by Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd, the photographs indicate the distribution of unexploded ordinance dropped on Italy by the British in 1944.

The works were commissioned for the initiative Italian atlas: portrait of a changing Italy, conducted by the MIBAC (Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities) Italy and DARC (Director General for contemporary art and architecture), Rome. They were first shown in The Museum of Art for the XXI Century (MAXXI, formerly The Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre) in Rome, Italy. One of 15 photographers commissioned to undertake visual research in the Italian landscape during 2007, particularly in relation to landscape at risk. The photographs pose the question; How can the photographic interrogation of landscape excavate narratives and histories not visible on the surface of the land? How can the post-conflict landscape offer revitalized insights into the narratives of war and the memorializing of history? Each photograph is made on the site of an unexploded bomb. The title of each work indicates the number of bombs dropped on that location on a specific date.

Toured to the International Photography Festival Reggio Emilia, Centro Internazionale Loris Maluguzzi, and Gallery Marangoni, Florence. Two exhibition catalogues - one Italian one English: Fabiani, F 2008: Italian Atlas, Landscape at Risk, Electra Milan 148pp. Subsequently exhibited in the exhibition 'Paesaggi dell'invisibile' at Galleria Traghetto – Venice and Galleria Traghetto Rome. In 2009 images included in billboard art project in Belfast and Hamilton New Zealand.