DéVoilées
Conference
Sala del Grechetto – Biblioteca Sormani

5th December 2018

The conference “DéVoilées”, held at the Sala del Grechetto within the Biblioteca Sormani in Milan, was convened for the presentation of the namesake book. Using the publication as its starting point, the event explored the intricate ways identity, presence, and transformation are mediated through aesthetic and visual language.

The discussion unfolded around the conceptual premises of the photographic series DéVoilées, which challenges conventional dynamics of vision and representation. Through its use of partially obscured subjects—photographed from behind and veiled—the project invites viewers to question the act of seeing itself, confronting them with the limits of perception and the ambiguity of visual information.

During the conference, these aspects were examined as tools for questioning the act of seeing itself. The image was investigated as a space where appearance and essence diverge – a threshold between visibility and concealment. Through this lens, the conversation touched on broader philosophical and perceptual questions: what remains when we are denied full access to the subject? Can the invisible communicate more than the explicit?

In addressing these themes, the conference also reflected on the role of the viewer as an active participant in the construction of meaning, and on how the aesthetics of absence can open up spaces of freedom and projection. Rather than offering a finished narrative, DéVoilées invites a suspended form of looking—one that does not seek resolution, but accepts incompleteness as part of the experience of the image.

The event received support from the Municipality of Milan, Milan City of Literature, and the Library Network of Milan.

Talk hold by Flavia Cellerino, Art Historian, Valerio Consonni, Jounalist, Franco Curletto, Hair Designer and Entrepreneur and Alessandro Vasapolli.