Inna Rogatchi’s Self-Portrait In Venetian Mirror ( 2020) is exhibited in Budapest, at the Personality: Contemporary Portraiture exhibition at the PH21 Gallery and Art Photography Centre.
The exhibition is large and representative, it exhibits portraits by 60 artists from all over the world, with many American artists, as well as those from Mexico and Canada, and a lot of European artists as well, from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania. Among the artists from the other continents are those from Australia, African artists from Ghana and Madagascar.
The works presented at the exhibition represent a wide spectrum of contemporary portraiture, from philosophical, poetic and enigmatic works such as the Self-Portrait in Venetian Mirror by Inna, to dynamic post-modern statement-like works.
In their introduction to the exhibition, the PH21 curators mentioned the following: “Today we live in an exciting new era for portraiture. There has never been a time in human history when so many portraits and self-portraits were produced day after day as in the era of digital technologies. Photographers have responded to the cultural, social and technological changes by reinterpreting the age-old genre of portraiture, and it is always an exciting and rewarding task to organise an exhibition for some of the recent achievements in the field.”
In her Artist Statement, Inna Rogatchi explained her thoughts and ideas with regard to this work: It is not the genre in which I work a lot. The work is rather an exception, given its subject-matter. It would be correct to say that the work is rather a portrait of that special and magnificent old venetian mirror in which I took a self-shot trying to amalgame the moment of my presence next to it, next to the history that mirror presents to me. Several of my personal strong attachments have coincided in this work: my deep love for Italy, at every layer of its history, language and culture, my love and strong connection to Venice, my fascination with mirrors in general and venetian mirrors with all its rich history, in particular. I do believe that some mirrors are able to keep the energy from what had been reflected by them, from the past. I spent some time in the art history research of venetian mirrors, also conducting that research at the place and working with the art and history experts specialising on the theme. So, for me, the venetian mirrors are ‘speaking’ objects which I am always fascinated with. I see and feel in them not only art objects, but also a very special reservoir of human memory. I love the mystery and promise of those mirrors. “
The exhibition is on display at the PH21 Gallery in Budapest from March 10th through April 2nd, 2022.