Second Sight
Saturday 27 April – Sunday 21 July 2013
Stills, Scotland Centre of Photography 23 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh
Developed in partnership with The Italian Cultural Institute and Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Second Sight is part of a three-year cycle of projects entitled Image/Identity, focusing on the phenomenon of human migration. Conceived to reflect the growing trend of migration both as a differentiated and as an integrated part of everyday life, the project will consider how contemporary society is shaped by the migration of peoples, what they are drawn to and what they leave behind.
The first in the series, Second Sight, will explore the transformation of the lives of people from rural Italy who, after 1940, emigrated to urban communities throughout Europe. Historical and contemporary photography, film screenings, online archives and events will illuminate the nuances of our international cultural heritage, question the cultural stereotypes we take for granted, and build up an understanding of the plurality of experiences and identities which make up Scotland’s people today.
Exhibition
In Stills’ main gallery, photographs by Frank Monaco (USA 1917- 2007) and Robert Capa (Hungary, 1913-54) capture moments of refuge, upheaval and separation in Italy during and after WWII, while works by Adrian Paci (Albania 1969) and Fausto Colavecchia (Italy 1959), address the leap of faith made by labour-motivated migrants. Filmed in Scotland, France and central Italy, newly commissioned video works by Agapito Di Pilla (Italy 1972), Valentina Bonizzi (Italy 1982) and Maria Thereza Alves (Brazil 1960) explore how people sustain family and employment relationships in different countries for prolonged periods of time and offer insight into the complexity of our feelings towards the places we come from and return to.
Online Archive: Scotland & Migration
A specially designed online archive of photographs documenting migration to Scotland.
This website celebrates the cultural diversity of people living in Scotland by sharing photographs of experiences of migration into the country. Second Sight invites people to bring their historical and contemporary photographs to be scanned and uploaded onto the website to create the first image-based archive of migration to Scotland. The site will enable people to search by key words associated with migration: Preparation, Departure, Journey, Arrival, Acclimatization, Integration, Return.
Stills invites people to come to Stills individually or in groups, and to join us in a creative session to tell through your photographs stories of travel and new lives. The sessions will take place in our comfortable reception space and last about a half an hour depending on how many images you share with us. Please join us on Saturday 11 May, Saturday 22 June or Sunday 14 July, where we will be recording stories and scanning photographs from 11am-4pm. The team will be pleased to provide a tour of the Second Sight exhibition during your visit.
Please write to: secondsight@stills.org – www.stills.org/current-group
All events are free and no booking necessary unless stated.
Photo credit: ‘Agapito Di Pila. detail from Women of Molise, 2013’
Many thanks to Stills, Tony Macaroni and Arts and Business Scotland New Arts Sponsorship Grants for their funding and partnership in producing Second Sight.
www.stills.org
Reservation no longer available