[WHO]
Arianna Todisco is a documentary photographer who lives, studies, and works in Milan, born in Barletta in 1995; in 2019 she graduated in New Technologies of Art at the Academy of Belle Arti di Brera with a thesis that explores the new communicative languages of reportage in the field art. During her academic studies, she undertakes her photographic research, her eye is concentrated mainly on the socio-cultural stories of our day. She participates in various workshops, group exhibitions and artistic residences such as the photographic exhibition at the Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan with a project realized during the workshop “Armin Linke. The appearance of what is not seen ” at the pavilion itself. In 2017 she is selected as Donghi Prize winner. In March 2018, the “Solitudinem” project is selected by photographers and experts of the prestigious photo agency Magnum Photos and Contrasto for the collective “ORA” at the Carispezia Foundation, La Spezia. In September last year, she comes selected by Canon Italy and Canon France to participate in the Canon Student Program 2019 in the setting for one of the major photojournalism festivals, the Visa PourImage in Perpignan. In October 2019 she is among the nine finalists of the Talent Prize 2019 organized by Insideart Magazine, receiving the Special Mention of the Jury and exhibiting her installation “Villaggio Dei Fiori” at the Roma Mattatoio Museum.
Since September 2018 she has studied photography at CFP Bauer Milan. In 2019 she is part of the Board of Directors
of the visual arts agency Quite Society, also holding the role of director of communication.
[Community Hall]
Out of curiosity I was looking for events on facebook with geolocation in Botswana, so I come across the “10th Anniversary Overthrust Metal Death Mania”, immediately captures my interest and within a week I decided to leave for Ghanzi, the capital of the Kalahari, in the largest desert of all Africa where the most important metal festival of the whole continent takes place. The Festival lasts three days and takes place within the Community Hall, a common space that is usually used by the local community for festivities, celebrations and sporting activities. The Overthrust is a band originally from Ghanzi, but thanks to the success of their music and the second life led by individual members of the band who work as state employees, they currently live in the country’s capital but every year they do not fail to organize the festival themselves in their native village. The festival lasts two and a half days: on the first night the Community Hall is illuminated only externally by a street lamp, around it there is total darkness; within the structure, the community is in ferment for the preparations. Access is free to anyone and at any age from the second day of the festival; during the first day, the children remain outside the perimeter of the Community Hall trying to scrutinize and admire their idols, the metal cowboys. Most of them are dressed in clothing that goes from metal to western, others wear clothes in full Bronx and queens style: Nike, Levi’s and Jordan are the most frequent brands. They are relaxed and ready for the camera, with the strong desire to make themselves known in the world, to assert themselves. It is not just a festival, but a part of the real Africa, which in this case thanks to the art of music makes its way to new borders. A Quite Society production.
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