Viewfinders by Matteo Girola at Studiofaganel

Exhibited for the first time are eight works, already previewed at the Centrale Festival in Milan, October 2025, curated by Luca Panaro, taken from the book of the same name published by studiofaganel in March of this year.

Overview

Viewfinders is a project that has undergone several editorial forms over the years: from a dummy developed during a workshop at Chippendale studio Milano, to a self-published artist's book with a small print run, finally becoming a book published by studiofaganel. Although it has a larger print run, it has remained an artist's book due to many characteristics, linked to the materials used, the (handmade) binding, and especially the printing, which saw the combination of offset and the Risograph technique (for the portraits of the Viewfinders).

Finally, the project arrives at the form of an artwork, and chooses to do so in close connection with the book: thus, the works will still be floating portraits on a neutral background, still Risograph prints on paper identical to that used for the edition.

The project stems from extensive research into camera user manuals, in which images were found that improperly describe the use of the device. These images thus portray figures looking into the viewfinder, and in the wrong, alternative gesture of holding the camera upside down, they become finders of new views (viewfinders). Among its various reflections, the work suggests the necessity and beauty of seeking different and unusual points of view to look at reality, thanks also to the magical encounter with a camera and with photography, exactly as the artist himself did by recognizing and finding these portraits within a vast "archive" of images.

"It is exactly this kind of finds and observations that make me very happy and enthusiastic. Masses of people look at the same images and types of images nowadays, but it needs artists like Girola to show us the niche and meaningful images from the fringe. In this way our eyes keep on being surprised and we keep the faith that there are still images to be discovered." (Erik Kessels)

Also on display are two other projects. Luce dei miei occhi (Light of my eyes), in which the artist uses images from an ophthalmological diagnostic exam, transferred onto a slide, revealing the map of his eyes to himself and to visitors through a sculpture that resembles a magical tabernacle and an obsolete medical instrument. And a selection of images from the series Just a souvenir, which derives from a collection of thousands of mysterious images produced by early camera phones, uploaded online by anonymous authors, and finally saved and selected by the artist.

Girola's research, while using different working methods, proceeds along the path of contemporary photography. It explores the nature of images between reality and fiction, between archives and his own production, focusing on their uncertainty, modifications, and reproducibility, and reflects on the possibility of real photographic communication.

The opening will be on Saturday 15 November, 6:30pm, with the artist present in dialogue with art critic Daniele Capra.