Perugia | The Lonely Body

Ok, so we’re all photographers nowadays and everyone’s turning their digital gadgets around to click at arm’s length. Still, there are photographers and photographers, and an unmissable exhibition in Perugia reveals the awesome variety of contemporary artistic-photographic self-portraiture.

Entitled Il Corpo Solitario (The Lonely Body), the show is inspired by a recent book of the same name by art critic and historian Giorgio Bonomi (published by Rubbettino, 2011). It offers up surely the most intimate kind of representation any artist can produce from more than 40 living photographers of international repute, though most – but not all – are Italian. It’s fascinating to see how artists render themselves, what messages they send out. Some of the images make you smile, others are jarring and quite a few make you doubt the photographer’s sanity.

The exhibition is curated by Giorgio Bonomi and Alessandra Miglioratiand – oh dear – is already in its last week. It runs until October 27 2013 at the Contemporary Culture Centre housed in stately 16th-century Palazzo della Penna. Where, by the way, you’ll also find a wonderful little collection of Joseph Beuys works on slate, and a grand little gourmet café and museum shop called BIOO.