Sofia Pagliaro
Gaia Tognoni
Sofia Pagliaro, born in Rome in 1999, attended the Ettore Majorana Linguistic High School in Guidonia. In 2021, she won a scholarship for the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome. The following year, in 2022, she was selected for a collaboration between Armani Silos and Magnum Photos. In 2023, she participated in the IEDxRegina Coeli photographic project, a workshop for inmates at the Regina Coeli prison, coordinated by photographer Simona Ghizzoni. In 2024, she graduated in photography from IED Rome with a project titled ‘Berta smoked a cigar’.
Gaia Tognoni was born in 1997 in Padua. She studied at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Pisa and later studied photography at the Faculty of Visual Arts at IED Rome. In 2022, she was selected by Armani Silos in collaboration with Magnum Photos to participate in two workshops at the Armani Silos headquarters in Milan, first with photographer Cristina De Middle and later with photographer Alex Majoli.
In 2023, her work was selected and published in the February/March issue of Cosmopolitan magazine and was subsequently exhibited at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan. In 2023, she took part in the IEDxRegina Coeli photographic project: a workshop for prisoners at the Casa Circondariale, coordinated by Simona Ghizzoni. In 2024, she graduated in photography from IED Rome with the photographic project “L’abito fa la monaca” (‘The habit makes the monk’), supervised by Simona Ghizzoni. The thesis project also includes materials obtained through a year of photographic workshops with women who have suffered violence and are supported by the Donna Lilith Anti-Violence Center in Aprilia.
The project ‘L’abito fa la monaca’ was selected and published in September 2024 by the Ragusa Photo Festival in the Young Photographer Academy section, partially published within the 'Connessioni’ exhibition in December/January, and selected and currently competing for the GRANT Fondazione Morelli 2024.
Connessioni
“Connessioni” is the result of a participatory photography workshop at the Centro Antiviolenza Donne (center on violence against women) at the center located in Aprilia, curated by Simona Ghizzoni and led by two young artists: Sofia Pagliaro and Gaia Tognoni. The workshop was created in 2024 at the request of a group of women who, having completed their journey out of violence, wanted to continue their mutual support group experience through photography. Photography, by its very nature, has a deep connection with memory and recollection, but at the same time can serve as a tool for reflection and the reconstruction of one's own identity. The exhibition’s journey unfolds in two main thematic areas where the images taken by the women were revisited using material techniques such as cyanotype, manipulation of Polaroids, and printing on fabric.
“Semi” (Sofia Pagliaro) is the first thematic area of the exhibition, guiding us into a secret garden, a place both real and utopian, which is represented through natural elements as the private space shared by the women: a safe environment that, however, sometimes hides traces of the past. In this timeless garden, the protagonists are the self-portraits of the women, who blend into the vibrant vegetation.
“L’abito fa la monaca” (Gaia Tognoni), the second thematic area, focuses on the intimate metaphorical space par excellence: the dress. Some clothes accompany us throughout life, while others are home to memories we need to let go away. The same reflection was applied to objects the artist calls “totemic” – objects capable of representing the self, much like self-portraits.
Photography, in this context, serves as a tool for the women to take control of the narrative of their own story, breaking away from the stereotype of the victim. The image manipulation techniques, carried out together with the participants, aim to retrieve back the experiential and supportive aspect of photography.
Simona Ghizzoni