ICONS by Vittoria Ghiotto

ICONS by Vittoria Ghiotto is the second of the three winning projects from the OUT OF FOCUS call, to be hosted at the showcasing venue in the Mario Gromo Library/Mediatheque, from 5 February to 6 April 2018.

The artist plays with the themes of pop icon, of image and depiction, so central in contemporary art, posing the issue of divergence between faces and identity in images proposed by Twentieth century media, with irony and skill. Vittoria Ghiotto  transforms digital elaborations of the faces of some great Twentieth century divas into "cyberfaces" which stretch the artificial character of Star System images to the limit.

OUT OF FOCUS, the call promoted by the National Cinema Museum and reserved for young photographers whose age ranges between 18 and 31 years, was born with the intention of welcoming and disseminating youthful photographic production in multiple aspects such as its artistic expression, as a visual document, and a narrative project. The new generations’ interest for the art of photography merges with the museum mission for the enhancement of the theme of photography and of the role of young people as active producers of culture.

ICONS by Vittoria Ghiotto

My project is based on research into images regarding women who have become real, actual icons in time. In this trip through time, I started from the Fifties until I reached our days, discovering the faces of certain style-icons who left their mark in the world. I searched for their most famous pictures, many of which have entered collective imagery, nevertheless without neglecting the less famed, and somehow, the most authentic ones, perhaps the most representative of the real essence of the women taken into consideration. As I already imagined, my research confirmed that each age has had and has its own female icons, the ones that without any doubt have distinguished themselves most for style, elegance or transgression.  For each one I have selected some photos, choosing the ones that spoke best of their life. The project wishes to show how the concept of beauty has evolved over the years and which figures dictated the aesthetic canons of their time: from Audrey Hepburn’s almost innocent beauty to Marilyn Monroe’s blatant one, which embodies all the ideals of the second post-war period with her tiny waist, to Grace Kelly’s regal beauty with her innate elegance, to Twiggy’s famous adolescent-like one, with her slender image taking the place of the typical hourglass silhouette of the previous decade. The last, but not least important aim, is to show how those same icons have changed over time, undergoing a natural evolution process whilst remaining immortal symbols.

Vittoria Ghiotto was born in Thiene (Vicenza) in 1995. Following her Artistic High-school diploma, she enrolled at the Fine Arts Academy in Brescia, for the Photography course. Just before her degree, she undertook a thesis regarding “Cinema tourism”. In 2017 she won the OUT OF FOCUS call by the National Cinema Museum. She intends to continue her studies, always within the ambit of photography linked to cinema.