Carolina Pimenta
High Seas, High Hopes

Exhibition Details

Carolina arrived in Portofino after a long journey, anxiously waiting for the sunrise. She grew hearing about this famous place - its status as a symbol of old glamour and mesmerising beauty has made it a destination for the élite's summer vacations, immortalised by Slim Aarons' photographs. Even though the town is small it has created a larger-than-life reputation, inspiring movies and songs that capture its romanticised spirit. Imagination, stereotypes, and anticipation come together as she approaches this famous town she has always heard about but never seen or experienced firsthand.

Pimenta’s images trace a relentless movement, a rush to seek, know, understand, shape an idea and then its opposite. An instinctive mosaic is formed, unafraid of contradiction: her Portofino is a reality of sharp contrasts, where ultra-glamour and more accessible, human, imperfect gestures clash and mirror each other. Local life and tourism, yachts and ferries, the shade of private beaches and sunburns, freshly caught fish and the glare of shop windows. As we jump from one detail to another, like Pimenta, we try not to fixate on a single idea but to let several coexist.

The images allow the eye to wander and invite us to reflect on how we construct and deconstruct the idea of a place.