Artists in residence

Federica Chiocchetti is a writer, curator, publisher and lecturer specializing in photography and literature. Through her Photocaptionist platform, she collaborates with international institutions such as The Photographers’ Gallery, Fotomuseum Winterthur and Foam.

Currently in residence at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, she is completing her PhD in Photo-Texts: Critical Intersections in History at the University of Westminster in London, and has transformed her research into a travelling exhibition with the support of the Jan Michalski Foundation. She is also the guest editor of the upcoming issue 16 of Aperture’s PhotoBook Review (April/May 2019).

Recent projects include the monographic exhibition Lorenzo Tricoli: The Archive You Deserve for Fotografia Europea 2018, the Jaipur Photo Festival in India (2017), the exhibitions Invisible Stratum for the Tokyo International Photography Festival (2017) and Feminine Men for the London Art Fair (2016).

In 2016, she was one of 16 “women’s curators who are making a difference” at Artnet. In 2015, she was a member of the Art Fund Curatorial Fellow of Photographs at the V&A and Nottingham Castle Museum, where she curated an exhibition and symposium on Peter Henry Emerson’s work on images and texts. Her book Amore e Piombo (Archive of Modern Conflict) won the Kraszna-Krausz 2015 Best Photography Book Award. Her writings have appeared in Foam, The Eyes and Photoworks, among others. She has lectured at international institutions such as the London College of Communication, ECAL, Paris College of Art and Image-Text Ithaca (NY), including the recently designed course’History & Theory of Photo-Text Intersections’.

Born in 1974 in Ambunti, Papua New Guinea, he lives and works in Papua New Guinea.

Robin Chiphowka Kowspi is the eldest son of Raymond Marek Kowspi. Since 2002 he has devoted himself to painting. As Raymond Marek Kowspi’s eldest son, he made his mark in 1999 with the creation of a statue representing the mythological figure Kumurr, acquired by the American Ran Perry. His almost immediate mastery of the technique of acrylic on paper and canvas earned him the recognition of his father, who described him as “the best Kwoma painter of all time”. He became a tourist guide in his village and, along with his father, welcomed researchers and adventurers, as well as tourists from all over the world, notably at the Sepik festival in Ambunti.

Initiating his creative process with pencil drawings, he then balanced the colours, often mixing them in ingenious ways. He tries to imagine palettes that are adapted to each subject, and so incorporates contemporary elements into traditional stories, creating images that resonate with collective memory while reflecting the realities of the present day.