Gianluca Sodaro (Italy)
Once upon a time there were dunes in Nida. And they still are.
My project follows another one I’m working on, involving Lithuanian elders. History is a constantly evolving process that we often don’t notice because it acts almost on tiptoe. It’s the fruit of a plurality of individuals who, silently or clamorously, have participated in its development, have or had their ideals and all together have forged the future.
Some time ago I was walking along the beach in Nida and I had a vision, a visual intuition: how much the dunes on the beach and the elderly people are alike!
Let me explain. What is a dune? An accumulation of sandy sediments shaped by the action of winds and time and therefore subject to continuous changes and, despite the weather, they resist and are always there in their place. What is an elderly person? A human being who, over time, transforms, changes, moves and, despite this, is still there with his thoughts, his knowledge and above all his history. The visual idea would therefore be to insert and portray elderly Lithuanians within this extraordinary natural context of Nida to the point of almost blending in. It would be like planting the seed of the wisdom of these human beings in these dunes to cultivate, grow a tree that already has its roots, sap and history. In this sense we could talk about a sort of natural and anthropological ‘site-specific work’. For a better visual narrative, I will do research and a selection of the local residents and I could involve some Lithuanian structures/associations with which I am already collaborating and who would be enthusiastic to participate in my new project too.
Gianluca Sodaro was born in Sicily. He's a graduate of Milan’s Academy of Fine Arts and Design (NABA). Gianluca was a student of the Maestros Vittorio Fagone, a world-renowned art critic, Gianni Colombo, an internationally renowned member of the Kinetic Art movement, and Emilio Isgrò, the historical representative of Conceptual Art in the 60s. In 2004 Gianluca Sodaro made his first feature film Cuore Scatenato (Raging Heart), which received the prestigious acknowledgment of ‘Feature Film of Cultural Interest’ from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. The US premiere took place at the International Miami Film Festival in 2004. In the same year Gianluca got in touch with American music composer Angelo Badalamenti (he's best known for his work scoring films for director David Lynch), who created the music score for God's Got His Head in the Clouds (2012) and Nowhen (2018). These short films have been shown, nominated and awarded at more than 45 film festivals all over the world. As a photographer, Gianluca had his first photographic solo exhibition, Ageless – Dolls Have Time to Waste, at the Meno Nisa Contemporary Art Gallery in Vilnius and at the Gloria Delson Contemporary Arts in Downtown LA in 2016. In 2019 his photographic project Sante ma donne was exhibited in Castelbuono (Sicily) and at FotoFever Photography in Paris, at the GAM – Contemporary Art Gallery in Catania (Italy) in 2021 and at the MIA Photo Fair – Photo Independent in Milan (Italy) in 2022.
