Federica Di Giovanni was born on the Island of Ponza.
Her work has been published in many Italian and International magazines such as The Financial Times, Monocle, Sport week and Vogue. She took part in various exhibitions thus Il Mestiere del Fotografo at La Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, Piattaforma 09 at Fondazione Fotografia in Modena and in 2012 her work Camping Italia, awarded with the FNAC Award, and has been featured with a solo exhibition at Rantagalleria of Northern Photographic Center in Finland. Federica is currently working on her new project Isole d'inverno, an exploration of Minor Italian Islands during the winter season, which has been among the finalists of Combat Award 2014. When she's back on the mainland, she lives and works between Florence, Milan and Rome.

Slideluck is a global no-profit organisation whose mission is to create community through food & art. Slideluck has brought multimedia art shows to over 75 cities around the world featuring over 10,000 artists. Slideluck is free and open to the public. The event will be a community potluck followed by a slideshow featuring 20 selected artists working in Photography & Mixed Media.

As an official partner of the first edition of Slidesluck Prato, we showcase five photo series among the shortlisted works.

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I’ve always wondered what was a big puzzle doing on my grandmother’s wall amongst the pictures of weddings and saints. My grandfather used to add pieces to it with his seven sons during the long winters on the Island of Ponza. 

Once it was finished, the family used to tear it down, and started it again. "We were trying to overcome the winter", my father once said. This image has strengthened my sense of belonging to those family dowels. I felt the need to put the pieces back together by looking for cold winters on other islands. I travelled over Capraia, Lampedusa, Linosa, Pantelleria, San Pietro, Giglio, Procida, Eolie, Egadi, Pontine andTremiti Islands e in order to tell all these Italian minor islands’ stories; because winter undresses these lands from the stereotype of summer paradise and shows a different beauty made of tales and everyday gestures.

Mine is a mapping of something near that remains far, a survey on the islander condition. And this condition stands out in the winter season. Every island has its own story. In some way, the same story of every island. For this reason, maybe, the image of the island as the place of the soul is unlimited. 

Wislawa Szymborska's island is an essential part of our hopes. Cesare Pavese's island is seductive and dangerous if you're not willing to endure its truth. Elsa Morante's island has sea borders, fairy tale and tragedy. Fernando Pessoa's island, with its water that separate men from the mainland, plays our world up. I had been on the island for more than a month, going through both silence and waiting.

Talking about the unpredictable wind, which blows from north west and than suddenly turns to east while you were trying to define its direction. Understanding that the sea, seen from the island, reveals itself like an unstable fact.


Website

www.federicadigiovanni.com