selected exhibitions

selected bibliography

Emanuela Zanon, Daniela Comani: Supporto memoria, Juliet Art Magazine, No. 217, Aprile 2024
Giulia Elisa Bianchi, Nell’arte la manipolazione del linguaggio è ciò che la rende intrigante. Scrittura 1: Daniela Comani, Juliet Art Magazine, 24.05.2024
Giangavino Pazzola, Daniela Comani: Supporto memoria / Memory Device, 2024
Elsa Barbieri, You Are Mine: Daniela Comani, Exibart, January 2023
Peter Backof, Mit dem Finger auf der Landkarte 2.0, WDR 5 Scala - aktuelle Kultur, 19.01.2023
Daniela Comani und "Stopover" im Essener Museum Folkwang, Kunstforum International, 19.01.2023
Luca Panaro, Pratiche di autorappresentazione nella fotografia italiana contemporanea, Flash Art Italia, No. 359, inverno 2022-23
Claudia Pansera, Daniela Comani on show in Rome with YOU ARE MINE, Juliet Art Magazine, 17.11.2022
Ida Panicelli, Daniela Comani / La Galleria Nazionale, Roma, Art Forum, December 2022
Gianluca Ranzi, Osservatorio Art, Arte Fiera, Bologna, 21.10.2021
Marco Enrico Giacomelli, 212 romanzi, 424 frasi. Intervista a Daniela Comani sulla sua nuova opera-mostra, Artribune, 12.03.2021
Leonardo Regano, The Beginning The End. Intervista a Daniela Comani Espoarte, 10.02.2021
Emanuela Zanon, Daniela Comani. The Beginning The End, Juliet Art Magazine, January, 22, 2021
Elena Del Drago, Radio RAI 3, June 21, 2020
Nicola Kuhn, Mit Daniela Comani einmal um die Welt, Der Tagesspiegel, April, 24, 2020
Interview Daniela Comani: Planet Earth: 21st Century, Postcards of a virtual journey, KooZA/rch, April 24, 2020
David Wagner, Corona Tagebuch, Zeit Online, April 4, 2020
Brigitte Werneburg, Überflug über das 21. Jahrhundert, Die Tageszeitung, Berlin, April 4, 2020
Elena Franco, Il paesaggio fotografato: tra prossimità e distanza, tra analogico e virtuale, Il Giornale dell'Architettura, March 24, 2020
Jacqueline Ceresoli, Daniela Comani, Ordine e Metodo, Galleria Milano, Exibart, January 2020
Nicoletta Graziano, I paesaggi urbani di Daniela Comani alla Galleria Milano, Exibart, December 2019
Angela Madesani, Cartoline Virtuali: Daniela Comani a Milano, Artribune, December 27, 2019
Viktor Misiano, It Was Me. Diary 1900-1999, in "The Human Condition", MMOMA, Moscow, 2019
Vera Tollmann, Wow, that's so postcard!, Planet Earth: 21st Century, Humboldt Books, Milan, 2019
Dylan Amirio, Reimagination of the World, The Jakarta Post, November 6, 2018
Antonella Sbrilli, Monsieur Bovary incontra Mr Dalloway, Alfabeta, December 10, 2016
Brigitte Werneburg, Daniela Comani: Wie die Sonne untergeht, TAZ, October 18, 2016
Hajo Schiff, Weltdeutende Text-Kunst, TAZ, May 27, 2016
Contribution to Post-Election Artists Dossier, Grey Room 65, New York, Fall 2016
Jessica Gelt, Daniela Comani surprises with gender-bender film posters, Los Angeles Times, February 22, 2015
Chris Rusak, Oscar, Untucked: Artist Daniela Comani's Rewrite for Hollywood, SFAQ, February 5, 2015
Christopher Knight, In Daniela Comani's movie universe, gender assumptions get flipped, Los Angeles Times, January 31, 2015
Catherine Wagley, The Woman Who Wasn't There, LA WEEKLY, January 14, 2015
Antonella Sbrilli, diteci di oggi, pagina99, 5 aprile 2014
Karin Salm, Eine glückliche Ehe, Radio SRF2 Kultur, 03/02/2014
Art aber fair, Daniela Comani: Eine glückliche Ehe, Radioeins, 6. November 2013
Jillian Steinhauer, The Women of the Miami Project, Hyperallergic, December 8, 2012
Federico Chiara, About Books: Reloading classics, Vogue, 11/2012, p 70
Sabina Minardi, Cambio di sesso, L'Espresso, Blog, 12 settembre 2012
Paola Naldi, Il mio manifesto - intervista a Daniela Comani, La Repubblica, 31 luglio 2012
Anna Pataczek, Manipulativ: Daniela Comani in der Galerie After the Butcher, Der Tagesspiegel, 28. Juli 2012
Michael Granberry, The Dallas Morning News, July 14, 2012
Daniela Comani: New Publication, Magenta Magazine Online, Summer 2012, Volume 3, No2
Nicola Kuhn, Mehr Berlin: Daniela Comani, Der Tagesspiegel, 7. Januar 2012
Diacritics: Contemporary Italian Thought (2), Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 2012
Sebastiano Mauri, "All You need is...", Flash Art Italy, Dicembre Gennaio 2012, pp 70-72
Sleek, 31, Autumn issue, 2011, pp 94, 220
Carolyn Kellogg, "What if it were 'Mr. Dalloway'? Book covers revisited", Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2011
Sharon Mizota, "Daniela Comani at Charlie James Gallery", Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2011
Catherine Wagley, "Happy Marriage, Center Stage", Daily Serving, April 29, 2011
feministische studien, 28. Jahrgang - Nr. 2 - November 2010
John Quin, Daniela Comani 365/51/1, in Art Review, April 2010
Brigitte Werneburg, Zur Bebilderung dieser Beilage, in: Literataz (Taz-Beilage) 12.03.2009
Daniela Comani, Det var jag. Dagbok 1900-1999, Paletten #272, Göteborg, 2008
Elena Zanichelli, Daniela Comani. He sido yo..., in Exit Express, #32, Madrid, 2007-08
Ingeborg Wiensowski, Atemlos durch die Zeit, in: KulturSPIEGEL 11/2007
Inke Arns, in: History will repeat itself, Revolver, Frankfurt a.M., 2007
Claudio Marra, in: L'immagine infedele, Bruno Mondadori Editori, Milano, 2006
Angela Madesani, Dal particolare al molteplice, in: Comanicasino, Revolver, Frankfurt a.M., 2006
Hanne Loreck, Performing show and tell, in: Eine glückliche Ehe, Goldrausch Art IT, Berlin, 2005
Simone Kindler, in: Permanent zeitgenössisch, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, 2005
Angela Madesani, in: Storia della Fotografia, Bruno Mondadori Editori, S. 285, Milano 2005
Donata Negrini, in: Arte sull'acqua, Non Capovolgere, S. 25, Mantova 2005
Manuela Zanelli, Tranches de vie - Strategie del quotidiano tra arte e vita, in: Tranches de vie, Ex-convento di S. Maria, Gonzaga, 2001
Loretta Guerrini, La lucida ironia di Daniela Comani, in: Arteletta, 4/2000
Dorothea Strauss, I close my eyes, in: (O.m.U.), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, 1997
Alexander Tolnay, (O.m.U.), in: (O.m.U.), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, 1997
Reinhold Happel, In den Schichtungen von Zeit und Raum, in: Daniela Comani, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 1997
Eva Karcher, Die Spuren einer kurzen Umarmung, in: ART Nr. 10, 1996
Raffaella Gattiani, Double Drawings, in: Titolo Nr. 21, 1996
Dario Trento, Comani, visi anonimi di squallide metropoli, in: La Repubblica, 5.9.1996
Dorothea Strauss, Die Kunst des Lesens, in: fön Nr. 20, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, 1996
Bojana Pejic, Nach-Bilder, in: Double Drawings, Künstlerdorf Schöppingen, 1996
Bernhard Kerber, in: Speculum Absconditum, Wiensowski & Harbord, Berlin, 1995
Stefan Rasche, Sprachgewirr und Charakter, in: Station Deutschland, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 1995
Reinhold Happel, in: Fotografie als Bild, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 1995
Alessandra Pace, Communication ou aliénation?, in: More than Zero, Magasin - Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble, 1993

bio



The set-up designed by Daniela Comani for Supporto memoria / Memory Device features three previously unseen works from as many periods of the artist’s career: Supporto memoria / Memory Device (2023), East Berlin 1990-2020, and Polaroid con doppia esposizione (Polaroid with double exposure, 1992). Both the static and the moving images first and foremost highlight a reflection on the relationship between the individual and time, which has become essential in the artist’s research. Time is explored, measured with one’s body, disclosed with devices, atmospheres and objects. It is a respected, yet at the same time directly addressed dimension, where logic is questioned despite the abundance of information offered by Comani.

In Supporto memoria / Memory Device (2023) – a series that also lends its title to the exhibition – Comani presents a sort of archive composed of 44 still-lifes of as many technological devices used over the years by the artist herself. Cameras, recorders, mobile phones, films, audio tapes, floppy disks, CDs, memory and sim cards make up a visual sampler of media history. On an aesthetic level, the devices immortalised on neutral backgrounds show resonances with works by conceptual artists such as Christopher Williams (1956) and Steven Pippin (1960). However, Comani does not criticise photography as a visual system or a mechanical process of capitalist society, but creates objective, nostalgic images to declare the impossibility of a technological archaeology, as well as to narrate a personal aspect of her own experience.

Indeed, from a methodological standpoint, the objects are photographed concisely and organised in a grid, showing information about the models and their structure, years of production and technical details. This cataloguing process reveals the coordinates of the construction of Comani’s personal archive, and thus of her personal memory and identity. It also questions viewers and suggests what the artist saw, decided to record or create with them, and – perhaps – what we would (or have) done with the same devices if we had owned any. On the one hand, by showing the subjects as icons, Comani makes a self-portrait of her relationship with history, echoing Walter Benjamin’s reflections on the ability of devices to record what unconsciously escapes the eye. On the other, she questions the potential for organising archives in the contemporary world – the second major theme addressed by the exhibition – reshaping time according to one’s interests, tastes and values. Here, additions have the same relevance as absences and are included in a scheme for collecting, storing and interpreting the past that does not reconstruct a complete picture, but rather opens up an opportunity for continuous questioning, a new narration of history and our relationship to it, and a possible reorganisation of the ways of imagining the future.

As in most of her works over the past thirty years, Comani shows an interest in the ‘technologies of time’ indicated by curator Dieter Roelstraete and, even better, for the media archaeology recounted by theorist Jussi Parikka, as also found in East Berlin 1990-2020, a split-screen video work that synchronously shows the course of the same urban space in the German capital thirty years apart. Both videos are shot from inside the passenger compartment of a car, recalling a great classic of conceptual photographic art such as Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966) by American artist Ed Ruscha. The first view was made by the artist on her birthday through a VHS video camera, as was the second, which, however, was made with an iPhone camera. Once again, the idea of personal experience supports a reflection on the progression of time and society, as well as the evolution of technology. Indeed, in this comparative juxtaposition, it is not only possible to detect a kind of grammar of semblance and contrast linked to the subject and technique, but also to observe the actions that the artist has performed with her body, leading to significant variations in the film. Images are first and foremost the place of the unveiling and exploration we make in the world, of our shedding light on the indistinct void, organising it and giving answers – albeit partial – to the knowledge of what surrounds us.

The 1990 footage is one of the first personal explorations of the Soviet sector after the fall of the Berlin Wall, crossing the eastern districts of Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg. The camera movements are incessant, the zoom focuses several times on details, and the architecture is often pointed at. In this sense, Comani lets the excitement of the discovery of what had until a few months earlier been considered the forefront of the socialist world in Europe shine through. However, not only is the grain of the shot in 2020 different for obvious reasons, but urban transformations emerge, as does the cultural, social and economic stratification related to the influence of the entertainment industry and capitalism. Furthermore, in the latter, the surroundings are filmed by hand, but with greater stability, leaving objects reflected on the glass to emerge – notebooks with writings that declare Comani’s connection to text and writing and emphasise the theme of the double. It is a meta-area in which the encounter and exchange between individual reality and social fiction is staged.

The theme of the double – as well as that of time – also emerges in the previously unexhibited photographic work Polaroid con doppia esposizione (1992), which the artist produced during her years at the Berlin University of the Arts. The picture was taken with one of the cameras immortalised in Supporto memoria / Memory Device; there, the artist portrays herself in front of one of her works of the time, which included a photographic reproduction of a detail of the model of the large domed building designed by Adolf Hitler and his architect Albert Speer, ‘Große Halle/Volkshalle’ (‘Great Hall of the People’) for the project ‘Welthauptstadt Germania’, i.e. the Universal Capital of the Third Reich. Using the double exposure technique, Comani stages a paradoxical situation that creates a short circuit in the experiential function of the photographic document and – at the same time – refers as much to our relationship with historical memory as to the theme of identity – both topics that will permeate her research in the years to come, as can be seen in works such as Sono stata io. Diario 1900-1999.

Due to great collective trauma, contemporary society appears incapable of thinking and imagining the future. Like many artists nowadays, Comani retrieves objects from the past, reactivating their history and function to outline a sort of self-portrait, which is also a hidden reflection of our times.
Supporto memoria / Memory Device
An exhibition by Daniela Comani
Text by Giangavino Pazzola
Galleria Studio G7, Bologna
January 12 - March 31, 2024