recto/verso is a research collective of widely understood curatorial practices aiming to broaden experiences while investigating the nature of images in contemporary society. Our work is based on constant exchanges both within the collective and with invited artists, curators and writers; along with regular active exhibitions and writing practice. recto/verso’s approach is multidisciplinary, believing that interaction and cross-pollination between disciplines and media create the potential for unexpected coincidences and startling revelations. Starting from our recent interests, the anthropology of images, our research weaves between different disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, history, new media, architecture and many others. recto/verso’s constant interrogation on the nature and notion of images, aims to investigate their origins and status within a collective cultural memory, bringing up its potential revisiting of the past in visual montages, through re-contextualization and discovered found footage aesthetics. By establishing his own discussion protocol, recto/verso, whose inspirations are drawn from diverse cultural and academic backgrounds, creates a platform, a discourse resource modulated by multiple intensities.
recto/verso was created in summer 2014 through Anna Tomczak and Giulia Bortoluzzi need to keep exchanging and dialoguing after a nine-month experience at the école du Magasin, Grenoble. The école du Magasin is an experimental laboratory where a small group of people, working collectively, question both theoretically and practically the role of curators in contemporary art. While Anna and Giulia were at the école du Magasin, they worked with four other people on the realization of the solo exhibition by Liam Gillick From 199C to 199D. This first collective experience established the basis for a wider research and practices.
Before recto/verso Anna Tomczak studied anthropology and worked in Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw as assisting curator and curator (2008-2012). Since 2012 she has been living in Lyon, where she works as an independent curator. She also cooperates with two art magazines: the Polish Obieg.pl and the London based Contemporary Lynx. Giulia Bortoluzzi graduated with a degree in philosophy and has been working in collaboration with various contemporary art galleries, theaters, private foundations, art centers in Italy and France. She is a regular art contributor for L’Officiel, editor for TAR magazine and editor in chief for the contemporary art magazine julietartmagazine.com.
*this statement is a point of departure for our activity. It will be regularly modified and developed based on our research, pending projects and publications.*
proofreading: Jan Nowacki
recto/verso 