Sarah Moon: A tribute to Mariano Fortuny

The highly personal and visionary style of Sarah Moon, the intensity of her gaze and the poetry of her photographs could find no more enchanting and empathetic space in which to be displayed than Palazzo Fortuny.

The soft lights of the lagoon in winter that penetrate through the large windows, the folds, the swirls and reflections created by the fabrics and drapes of the clothes designed by Mariano Fortuny, are a source of inspiration for this new exhibition, curated by Alexandra de Léal and Adele Re Rebaudengo, which the great photographer has built up over the years during her frequent visits to the house/workshop of Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei.

Her photographs, taken to pay tribute to Mariano Fortuny, welcome us in the luminous spaces on the second floor of the palazzo, and trigger a journey through memory, where the signs of ageing make manifest the evanescence of beauty and the permanent state of uncertainty underlying human existence.

The inkjet and silver salts prints tell fragments of an inner story, which takes shape in the shadows created by the movement of the fabrics recalling the softness of the pleats of the Delphos, the iconic dress made by Fortuny, and in the lines – blurred by memory – of the palazzo’s architecture.

One of the major photographers of contemporary fashion, and the first woman in 1972 to take photos for the Pirelli calendar, the French artist has for many years expanded the horizons of her focus, with a particular interest in three themes: the evanescence of beauty, uncertainty and the passage of time.

The development of her art has also seen her work with video, and her work has won numerous awards, including the Grand Prix National de la Photographie in 1995 and the Prix Nadar in 2008.