User:Annalaura di Luggo/sandbox

Annalaura di Luggo is an Italian multimedia artist.

Biography
Annalaura di Luggo (b. Naples -Italy, 1970) is an Italian multimedia artist. Fusing aesthetics, performance, and technology, the artist creates complex works that incite dialogue about social issues. With dexterity and empathy, she has tackled incarceration (Never Give Up), environmental issues (Sea Vision/7 Points of View), human rights (Human Rights Vision), and blindness (Blind Vision). To create Napoli Eden, her last project, di Luggo used recycled aluminum to construct four site-specific monumental installations open to the public that encouraged debate on sustainability in her hometown, Naples. This project inspired the creation of the experimental documentary film Napoli Eden, directed by Bruno Colella and distributed internationally.

The artist has received praise for her work from the public, major art critics, and prominent international figures from the world of culture and entertainment as Paul Laster Paco Barragan Timothy Hadfield.

Her works are in the collections of galleries in Miami, New York, Paris, Istanbul, Monte Carlo, etc. and her home country of Italy. Annalaura di Luggo’s installations distort space to confound her visitors’ visual coordinates of reality. Commissioned by corporate sponsors, institutions, and municipalities, she has completed both permanent installations (Museum of the Institute P. Colosimo of Naples Museum of Juvenile Prison of Nisida, Naples,  Geminus installation in Largo Baracche, Naples  and temporary interactive installations ( United Nations, New York; Scope Art Fair, Art Basel & Miami; Genoa International Boat Show, Torino The Others fair, etc)

The iris a major theme of Annalaura di Luggo's artistic practice; utilizing ophthalmological resources to photograph eyes she captures the inner lives of her sitters. The performative interactions that take place during each session lay the foundation for her video productions. The artist Annalaura di Luggo has exhibited around the world Occh-IO/Eye-I her performance-photography project born in order to capture and amplify a peculiar aspect of identity, belonging to everyone: "the eye". It emphasizes the word “I” to evoke the singularity of each individual. Over the years, the artist has encountered and had the opportunity to get to know people from many different social, generational, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. She photographed the iris of Hollywood stars as Antonio Banderas, Jeremy Irons, Robert Davi, AAron Diaz; famous Italian actors as Alessandro Preziosi, Raoul Bova; international producers as Avi Lerner, Mark Canton, Andrea Iervolino; international directors as Paul Haggis, Lee Daniels; international singers as Lola Ponce, Peppino di Capri, etc. as well as she shot eyes of people who find themselves homeless, of immigrants, of international politicians, of defenders of Human Rights as Kerry Kennedy, of victims of human trafficking, of prisoners, of champion sportsmen and women, of people who live with disabilities. The artist initiates an intimate and empathetic conversation with each of the “sitters” portrayed, in a joint exploration of their inner worlds, so that the individual images eventually incorporate and conserve traces of their protagonists’ personalities, thoughts and emotions. Over the years, the artist has exhibited in many solo shows and art fairs all over the world.

Recent artworks
- Napoli Eden (Naples, December 2018-January 2019), curated by Francesco Gallo Mazzeo and supported by CIAL (Consorzio Imballaggi Alluminio) a four site-specific monumental installations open to the public that was held across squares in the city of Naples, Italy. (Piazza Municipio, Galleria Umberto I, Largo Baracche, Largo Santa Caterina) .To symbolize rebirth and re- demption, Annalaura di Luggo created an “artistic gar- den” using waste material - specifically aluminum - as a comment on sustainability in her hometown, Naples. This project inspired the creation of the experimental documentary film Napoli Eden, directed by Bruno Colella, cinematography Blasco Giurato, distributed by Ambi international and TaTaTu.

- Blind Vision arises from the artist's interest in exploring the universe of people who perceive reality with senses other than sight in order to promote their social and cultural integration. This art project ignites our awareness of the discovery of a new world and of unexpected stimuli to perceive reality, with alternative senses to sight. The multimedia installation curated by Raisa Clavijo was inaugurated in May 2017 at the Istituto Colosimo in Napoli, then exposed in Art Basel Fair, in New York Cortina d’Ampezzo and Rome. The project revived again in Napoli at Christmas 2017 in a special edition in a black dome in Piazza dei Martiri counting over 15,000 visitors in one month and 45% of tourists selected it as the most interesting exhibition present in Napoli. Last exhibit was held at United Nations for the CRPD (Conference on Rights of Persons with Disabilities) – New York solo show June 11 – June 155th 2018. The Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations H.E. Ambassador Inigo Lambertini hosted an opening on June 11 where attended lots of institutional representatives of United Nations, art critics, art collectors and members of New York Jet set. The project began in November 2016 when the artist met with a group of 20 totally or partially blind people of different ages professions and educational backgrounds from UICI (Italian Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired) and the Istituto Paolo Colosimo of Napoli. She interacted with each one of them, photographing their irises and inviting them to share their experiences of living with one less sense. The experience of Blind Vision developed into a multimedia installation which assembles a collection of stories, feelings and reflections about how society perceives people who have difficulty seeing. A dark space recreates a suggestive atmosphere that evokes the world of those who are deprived of their sight. The photograph of the iris of each participant is displayed in a light box equipped with a sound mechanism: the eyes alternately light up and the original voices of these people reveal fragments of their personal stories to the spectator. In this dark area there is also ”Essenza” a tactile, three-dimensional artwork created by Annalaura di Luggo to be perceived by the blind. These interactions between the artist and the participants inspired the documentary Blind Vision, directed by Nanni Zedda. A book Blind Vision by Annalaura di Luggo, curated by Raisa Clavijo and Edited by Artium was distributed worldwide. Blind Vision received support from Regione Campania, Comune di Napoli, UICI onlus (Sezione Napoli), Associazione Teatro Colosimo and patronage of Museo Madre of Napoli.

- Human Rights Vision, a work auctioned at Palazzo Vecchio -Florence, to support the aims of the Robert Kennedy Human Rights Foundation.; Here the function of the artist's eyes is to furnish an alternative reading of the world: their purpose is “to elevate the world’s gaze and foster a spirit of brotherhood”. This artwork received a critic essay by Francesco Gallo Mazzeo and auction was conducted by the art critic and curator Fabrizio Moretti.

- Sea Visions, 7 viewpoints: the artist [[di Luggo has also created a work commissioned by Genova international boat show: Sea Visions, 7 viewpoints and she created 7 installations on the sea and the fish iris.

- Never Give Up, a project developed together with the inmates of the juvenile detention centre at Nisida off the coast of Napoli.: it is a permanent installation created inside an isolation cell where the eyes of the prisoners and the sentences written on the walls teach us the true value of freedom.

Awards
At the Niagara Falls International Film Festival, Blind Vision was awarded best documentary film by the film festival’s founder Stanley Isaacs. ,