LANGart Gallery in Netherlands proudly presents 17 artists, including Olga Chernysheva, in a group exhibition ‘‘Avanti!’ la Battaglia Continua” a tribute to Letizia Battaglia, the Mafia photographer who passed away April 2022 with works by:
Gijs Assmann, Merijn Bolink, Santi Caleca, Olga Chernysheva, Marlene Dumas, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Alessandro Guerriero, Afredo Jaar, Marion Kalter, Susan Meiselas, Sylvia Plachy, Lia Pasqualino, Maria D. Rapicavoli, Dayanita Singh, Shobha, Emo Verkerk and Franco Zecchin
Letizia Battaglia (Palermo 1935 – 2022) worked as a photo reporter for the left-wing daily newspaper L’Ora and thus recorded the many accounts of the Mafia. She became famous for her photographs in which she documented the crimes of the Mafia. She recorded the ‘years of lead’ in Sicily. Many of her photos became famous, not because of their horror, but because of the often well-framed and, above all, human approach that characterize her photos.
In 1992, Letizia Battaglia made perhaps her most famous photo: Rosaria Schifani, the widow of Vito Schifani, one of Giovanni Falcone’s bodyguards, who was killed as collateral damage in the execution of Falcone, along with his colleagues and Falcone’s wife, Francesca Morvillo. An intimate portrait with eyes shut, one half of the face in daylight, the other half in the dark of the shade.
LANGart has been representing Letizia Battaglia’s work since 2003. Over the past decades the interest in her work has only been growing among a large audience. Letizia Battaglia’s photos, her actions and her passion for justice and freedom have inspired many artists. Artists who have worked or lived with her or to whom Battaglia has become a source of inspiration for their own work: Gijs Assmann, Merijn Bolink, Santi Caleca, Olga Chernysheva, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Marlene Dumas, Alessandro Guerriero, Alfredo Jaar, Marion Kalter, Susan Meiselas, Lia Pasqualino, Sylvia Plachy, Maria D. Rapicavoli, Dayanita Singh, Shobha, Emo Verkerk, Franco Zecchin.
The show is on display from 11 March to 13 May, 2023
Address: Hazenstraat 18, Amsterdam
Visiting hours: Thursday – Saturday 13:00 – 18:00
