Tommaso Vitiello

Tommaso Vitiello, was born in Mercogliano (AV) on 9/11/1992.

In 2016 he graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Cultural Heritage with a thesis in Art History Criticism and Methodology, entitled "PHOTOGRAPHED NAPLES", edited by the art historian Carmela Vargas.
He trained in Naples in photography and lighting at the biennial course of the Manovalanza theater company with the photographer Davide Scognamiglio. In 2015 he joined KAOS PRODUZIONI by Stefano Gargiulo, a multidisciplinary working group that deals with the design and implementation of multimedia, scenic and exhibition projects.
For several years, as a photographer and videomaker, he has collaborated in storytelling and documentation works with Manovalanza, Arthemisia, MADRE Museum, Capodimonte Museum and the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia. From 2018 he deals with the documentation of the special FOODISTRIBUTION project by Davide Scognamiglio and Daniele Ciprì, for the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, now in its fourth edition. In 2020 he joined the team of the DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM project promoted by the Campania Region, for the photographic digitization of the cultural heritage of the Capodimonte Museum.
From 2018 he is part of Antonio Biasiucci's LAB Irregolare, with a photographic research project on memory and domestic life.
He currently works as a freelance photographer in the field of set, backstage, exhibitions and commercial photography parallel to his personal photographic research.

"Archèo"

witness s. m. and f. [...]. – 1. a. Person who, by witnessing, having witnessed, or in any case being directly aware of a fact, can attest to it, that is, bear witness to it, publicly affirm its truthfulness, or declare how it really took place [...] b. In a more objective sense, a person who is called or has come to attest to a fact of his knowledge (or which is presumed to be so), or to guarantee the truthfulness of an assertion [...] 2. Who bears witness to something or attests it , proving it with one's own authority [...] 3. Thing, object, manifestation, aspect that represents an indication or proof, a demonstration or clear documentation [...]

Objects set aside, forgotten, placed in places where stories accumulate in a tale suspended in time. These are the protagonists of Tommaso Vitiello's photographs, “mute witnesses” – as he defines them – who, abandoned from their original function, lie in the limbo of waiting, in the hope – perhaps – of being brought back to new life. Too important to be thrown away, but not enough to persist in everyday life, these sentinels of memory find their place in marginal territories such as cellars, attics, garages. Like an archaeologist of experience, with a speleological attention that takes him to these places of contemporary excavation, Vitiello finds them, circumscribes them and photographs them, giving them an almost sacred dignity that makes them emerge from the shadow in which they have been relegated. We therefore forget that we are in places where the acceleration of consumption celebrates itself and we rest our gaze on these elements that invite us to listen, to imagine stories of unknown actors, to retrace their tracks, to interpret the signs. Like exhibits, they are pieces of a story that fails to give itself in its entirety and for this reason it evokes solids and voids, presences and absences, reliving in the dialogue between lights and shadows.

Extract from the critical text LAB03: between words and images by Alessandra Troncone