STRANO Eleonora

EX Materia

France / Italy

2021

“Ex Materia” is a battle – it is a battle for life in the nuclear age. More than 30 years following the Chernobyl accident, Eleonora STRANO returns to the scene of her childhood in south-eastern France in an attempt to uncover unanswered questions. Ms STRANO portrays a world straddling between past and future, amidst a state of disequilibrium evoked by memories of the catastrophe.

It is a world where the human and the animal struggle to inhabit altered, threatened landscapes. Emerging from the darkness of this milieu, a new life force takes the form of a dance – one that is subtle, yet also heavily charged with emotion and subterranean energies. A complex choreography surfaces, foretelling the future through the lens of a valley, its mountains, and its scars. The series aims to take the viewer to the depths of this wounded valley, in search of ways to heal.

With the support of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Parigi

 

About the artist

Born in 1980, photographer Eleonora STRANO lives and works in France. Her works, which have received numerous awards, have been shown in France and abroad: BAL, Musée de la Photographie in Mougins, Photo Vogue Festival in Milan. She has also been listed by the British Journal of Photography as one of the “31 women to watch out for” in 2019.