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Antonella Cunsolo

Born in Sicily in 1974, she graduated with a degree in Psychology from the University of Rome and specialized in psychotherapy and phototherapy. Her passion for photography began at an early age, thanks to her father, who often photographed her. She began with urbex and landscapes, then moved on to portraiture, a field in which she attended several workshops with Italian and international masters.
She specialized in fashion photography at the prestigious Kaverdash Academy in Milan.
Her projects straddle the line between art and psychology.
She is the author of two books: “Io non muoio” (I Do Not Die) and “Noi siamo bellezza” (We Are Beauty).
She has received numerous awards in various national and international competitions.
She has exhibited in various galleries and museums.
Using a conceptual language, she is working on a series of photographic projects aimed at giving form and meaning to complex issues such as mental distress, anxiety, depression, dissociation, eating disorders, and trauma.
 

Project Statement

The project “Borderline Ocean” aims to describe the condition of psychological suffering, halfway between neurosis and psychosis, which is often the result of childhood trauma: neglect, abandonment, physical and/or sexual abuse.
A past that is not confined in time, but continues to live in the present, reactivated every day, influencing the way we feel, love, and exist, and casting its shadow on a fragile, inevitably compromised future.
It is born from multiple true stories, from hours of listening and sharing, from open wounds that still bleed, from memories of an unfortunate past that never fades and inexorably affects the present.
I chose a conceptual, rather than reportage-like, language for two fundamental reasons: first, to respect the intimacy and vulnerability of those experiencing this condition; On the other hand, because I wanted the images to have a universal value, so that anyone experiencing these states of mind can identify with them, and those close to those who suffer can begin to truly see what often remains hidden and must necessarily be listened to, understood, and addressed.
The Project also aims to promote collective responsibility. It’s not enough for institutions to remove minors from unsuitable family environments: it’s necessary to heal their wounds, accompany them, and support them over time. Especially in adulthood and not only until reaching legal age. Because those who grow up in a fractured state remain fragile and can hardly build full independence without ongoing support.
Many of these conditions are not even diagnosed.
The presence of mirrors and reflections is intended to emphasize the unstable self-perception and the resulting fragmentation. The two spheres, black and white, indicate the extremes, the opposites, that coexist within the borderline personality, incapable of being integrated by the individual who remains crushed by them. Even in relationships, unable to integrate good and evil, the individual oscillates between idealization and devaluation and/or persecutory feelings (paranoia), with serious repercussions on interpersonal relationships.
The technical and chromatic choices aim to create an atmosphere of isolation and solitude, with a strong sense of judgment and external observation. The use of neutral colors and minimalist compositions aims to convey a sense of apparent calm, which contrasts with the internal emotional turmoil typical of borderline personality disorder.
The subject is suspended between two realities: the external world and the internal one.
Reality is not denied, but translated, transformed by a defense system born of pain. The reflection of a swallow in flight becomes a desire to escape; a long-awaited freedom, but also an illusion: escape cannot happen, and the subject remains trapped in his own pain, confined in the corner of an abyss from which he cannot escape.

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