Re-velation

Iacono's photo-essay includes twenty photographs which show that there are many types of veils (hi-jab or headscarf, niqab, chador, burqa) and just as many ways to wear them; the now acquired polysemy has turned the veil into an emblem object of social, political, religious and cultural debates.

Iacono’s photographic research focuses on the body as a place of transformation, symbolically stigmatized by the rites of passage that belong to our cultural memory.

Yet the author does not take a position on the use of the veil, but investigates history, to "reveal" plenty of values and meanings, highlighting that differences and similarities between different cultures can often be misunderstood. By observing Iacono's photographic images, visitors are all prompted to reflect, and put themselves in the position of the "others".

From the formal point of view the portraits of "Re-velation" all have the same protagonist, the artist's young daughter; this is to avoid placing emphasis on the origin of the people portrayed but forcing the viewer to reflect solely on the polysemy of the symbol, going beyond the specificities of a country or religion. Flora is photographed against a uniformly dark back ground that often is confused with the dresses. The side light makes the figures emerge from darkness revealing the facial features and the details of the veils, thus symbolically and visually reinforcing the concept of revelation.