Biography
22 March 2019
Mimmo Jodice is a reference name in the history of Italian photography. He lives and works in Naples where he was born in 1934. Since the sixties as autodidact he approaches photography feeling involved in experiments and researches on materials and on different way of processing photography, using them not only as a descriptive mean but also as a creative one. During these years Mimmo Jodice lives in close contact with the most important artists who worked in Naples: Wahrol, Beuys, De Dominicis, Paolini, Kosuth, Lewitt, Kounnellis, Nitsch and many others.
In the same years Jodice engages in an intense socio-anthropological investigation of the rituality that will lead to the creation of a book Chi è devoto.
In 1969 he presented his research on the portrait at the Libreria Deperro, entitled Persona with the presentation by Michele Prisco.
In 1970 he is invited to teach to the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Naples, where he will teach Photography, the first time in Italy, until 1994.
His first art show is presented in 1968 at Palazzo Ducale in Urbino and, in 1970, at Diaframma in Milan another art show titled Nudi dentro Cartelle Ermetiche with a script of Cesare Zavattini.
In 1980 he published Vedute di Napoli from those Jodice starts an inquiry on the reality, working on a definition of an empty and alarming urban space of metaphysical memories. This research marks a turns in his language and a revision of its iconography: his photographs will always be more distant from reality and always more immerged in a visionary and silent dimension.
In 1981 he participated to the Expression of Human Condition art show at the Art Museum in San Francisco with Diane Arbus, Larry Clark, William Klein and Lisette Model.
In 1985 he began an intensive research into the myth of the Mediterranean, travelling all over the most significant places of Greek and Roman world. The result was a book, Mediterranean, published in 1995 in New York, by Aperture Foundation and translated and distributed in many countries.
In 2009 Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and, then, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris dedicated an importan thorough anthology to him.
In 2011 he is invited by the Louvre Museum for a personal exhibition with a new job: Les Yeux du Louvre.
In 2012 he presented his project Ville Sublimes-Sublimes Cities at Musèe McCord in Montreal.
In 2015 Jodice exhibited Jodice Canova at the Francesco Messina Foundation in Milan.
In 2016 the Museum of Contemporary Art “MADRE” in Naples dedicated to Mimmo Jodice the largest and most complete retrospective, under the direction of Andrea Viliani. In 2018 the Museum of Contemporary Art “MADRE” realized an important and exhaustive monograph of all his work entitled Mimmo Jodice. Attesa/ Waiting (da/ from 1960).
In 2017, the MAST Foundation in Bologna presented the exhibition Gli Anni Militanti, curatedby FranÇois Hébel.
In 2018 Jodice presented his famous work Mediterranean at the Eretz Museum in Tel Aviv; later it was also exhibited in all the capitals of North Africa. In the same year, at the Biennale of Photography of Moscow, Jodice was invited by the Multimedia Art Museum, where he exhibited his works Attesa, Eden and Transiti.
To remember also the honors received for his artistic commitment: in 2003 Jodice was awarded by the “Accademia dei Lincei” with the prestigious price Antonio Feltrinelli given for the first time to Photography. Also in 2003 his name was included in the Universal Encyclopedia of Art “Garzanti” and in the “Treccani” Encyclopedia. In 2006 the “University Federico II” of Naples confers him with the Degree Honoris Causa in Architecture.
In 2011 he receives the honor of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Art et des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture.
In 2013 he received the Honoris Causa Degree in Architecture from the “Swiss Italian University”.
Today Jodice is a central point of reference for future generations whom recognize in his work a unique sensibility and capacity that wisely combines innovation and classical refinement.
Selection of monographies :
CHI E’ DEVOTO, Esi, Napoli, 1974; VEDUTE DI NAPOLI, Mazzotta Milano, 1980; TEATRALITà QUOTIDIANA A NAPOLI, Ept, Napoli 1982; NAPLEA UNE ARCHEOLOGIE FUTURE, Bibioteque National Paris, 1982; GIBELLINA, Electa, Milano 1982; UN SECOLO DI FURORE, Editer, Roma 1985; SUOR ORSOLA, Mazzotta Milano, 1987; LA CITTA’ INVISIBILE, Electa Napoli, 1990, PASSE’ INTERIEUR, Contrejour, Paris, 1993; MEDITERRANEAN, Aperture, New York 1995; PARIS, CITY OF LIGHT, Aperture, N.Y. 1998; EDEN, Leonardo Arte, Milano 1998; REAL ALBERGO DEI POVERI, F. Motta Editore, Milano 1999; ISOLARIO MEDITERRANEO, F. Motta Editore 2000; OLD CALABRIA, F. Motta Editore, Milano 2000; MIMMO JODICE: RETROSPETTIVA 1965-2000, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Torino 2001; INLANDS, Visions of Boston, Skira Milano 2001; NEGLI ANNI SETTANTA, Baldini e Castoldi, Milano 2001; MIMMO JODICE, Motta Editore, Milano 2003; LIGHT, Damiani Editore 2006; SAN PAOLO, Skira Editore, Milano 2004; CITTA’ VISIBILI, Charta, Milano 2006; LIGHT, Ediz. Damiani, Bologna 2006; PERDERSI A GUARDARE, Contrasto, Roma 2007; ITALY, LOST IN SEEING, Thames & Hudson, Londra 2007; ROMA, Johan & Levi, Milano 2008; TRANSITI, Electa Napoli, 2008; MIMMO JODICE, Federico Motta Editore, 2010; NAPLES INTIME, Silvana Editoriale, Milano 2010; POMPEI, Contrasto Editore,2010; LES YEUX DU LOUVRE, Actes Sud, Parigi, 2011; VILLES SUBLIMES, Musée McCord, Montreal 2012; CANOVA, Marsilio 2013; ARCIPELAGO DEL MONDO ANTICO, 2014; MIMMO JODICE. ATTESA/WAITING (DAL/FROM 1960), Electa, Milano 2018.
Selection of solo exhibitions:
Memorial Federal Hall, New York 1985 ; Musée Réattu, Arles 1988; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995; Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf, 1996; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris 1998 ; Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, 1998; Museo di Capodimonte, Napoli 1998; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland 1999; Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna, Roma 2000; Castello di Rivoli, Torino 2000; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Torino 2000; MassArt, Boston 2001; Wakayama, Museum of Modern Art, Japan 2004, The Museum of Photography, Moscow 2004; MASP – Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, 2004; MART – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, 2004; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna 2006; Spazio Forma – Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Milano 2007; Museo di Capodimonte, Napoli 2008; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma 2009; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris 2009; Museo del Louvre, Parigi 2011; Museo Museo McCord, Montreal 2012; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Salonicco 2012; Accademia Architettura, Mendrisio 2013; Moontower Foundation, Francoforte, 2013; Stadtische Museum, Jena 2013; Hotel des Arts, Toulon, 2014; Foto Boario, Modena 2014; Photomed, Beirut 2015; Museo Madre, Napoli 2016; Mast, Bologna 2017; Museo Eretz, Tel Aviv; Multimedia Art Museum, Mosca 2018.
