Surrogati. Un amore ideale

In this article I am going to talk yet again about an art exhibition, more precisely, about a photographic exhibition.

This time I will present you my thoughts on the ongoing exhibition at the Osservatorio Prada in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, titled Surrogati. Un amore ideale (translated: Surrogates. An ideal love). Curated by Melissa Harris, it is a collection of 42 photos, taken by photographers Jamie Diamond (USA, 1983) and Elena Dorfman (USA, 1965), about the lives of common people living with hyper-realistic dolls.

The title Surrogati (surrogates), connects itself to the deep phycological content in which the exhibition is rooted: the unanimated object somehow turn alive through filling someone’s emotional void, the doll becomes someone who is missing in someone’s life, weather it being a lost child, a lover, or simply a friend. The photos speak directly to the audience going beyond the boundary of prejudice and provocation: both Melissa Harris and Elena Dorfman had to first gain the trust from this small community who at first, because of all the prejudice and misinformation around them, did not want to open up and let themselves be photographed with the dolls.

The exhibition forces the audience to think and explore the complexity of human relationships as lovers, as mother and as friends, the photographs are strikingly expressive and it really brings the viewer into perspective with other people’s private lives, and that is for me what this exhibition is about: make people think and curious.

photo by Jamie Diamond

Manami Galliker