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World-renowned photographer and undisputed pop culture icon David LaChapelle will receive the Lorenzo il Magnifico Lifetime Achievement Award at the Florence Biennale. The award, dedicated to the U.S. photographer's long career, will be conferred on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023 precisely during the 14th edition of the Florence Biennale, in which he will present an exclusive new cycle of work entitled Station of the Cross in its world premiere.
"It is a great responsibility to welcome David LaChapelle for this occasion," explains Deodato Salafia, "it is this is his first exhibition at our Rome headquarters, following the review of iconic works at Deodato Milano last fall. Anew LaChapelle, who has already treated subjects related to Christianity, such as the Annunciation, offers us with incredible surprise a survey of one of the most traditional pillars of the Roman Catholic Church. A work of 15 sets creates a collection destined to remain in art history."
In addition to the presence of these shots, other photographs by David Lachapelle taken between 2009 and 2023 will be on view during the award ceremony.
Station of the Cross: the collection starring rapper Tedua
Way of the Cross is nothing more than a Christian devotional path that consists of processionally passing 14 crosses, pausing at each one to pray to Jesus. These crosses are called stations: this Christian-based spiritual path inspired LaChapelle for his 2023 series Station of the Cross.
LaChapelle tells a sacred journey in a profane surrealist key, starting from the place where Jesus was condemned to death and ending with the place of the resurrection.
Profane in that Jesus is in the guise of Italian musician and actor Tedua: in 2023 the rapper released his third album dedicated to the Divine Comedy, a record for which LaChapelle signed the Covers for the two parts, Inferno and Purgatorio. The Genoese singer interprets the figure of Jesus with incredible pathos, reminiscent of the part he played in Michele Placido's 2022 film, The Shadow of Caravaggio.
Imbued with theatricality, the devotional itinerary is dismayed by symbolic figures inspired by the medieval and post-modern eras. However, LaChapelle repurposes the Christian iconographic repertoire in kitsch: he remixes semantic codes, drawing on the notoriety of images to provide us with new meanings related to the contemporary world. Plastic, sculpted, exaggeratedly colored, the subjects of LaChapelle's photographs reinterpret the secularized visual culture of the sacred. Thus the artist engages the viewer in his reflection on today's conception of religiosity.
The presentation of the collection at Deodato Arte
After the Station of the Cross works were exhibited at the Florence Biennale, the shots will be presented exclusively at the Deodato Arte gallery in Rome from Oct. 27 to Nov. 25.
During the opening night of the exhibition to be held at Via Giulia 122 in Rome from 6:30 p.m. David LaChapelle will be present.
