Private Project

SKIN CHANGES IDENTITY

The face is anthropological. It hides under its mask our roots and identities.
The face is our identity, these traits speak of our ancestors and belongings.
But do we choose our parents, countries of origin or religions?
Do we have to defend our community?
Does Man even have the right to ask these questions?
The phenomenon of immigration is not a current subject, it is a subject of all time, but the rate of immigration and integration problems have become more dangerous at the moment.

  • Maria DININNI
    Photographer
  • Genres:
    Black&white, conceptual, facepainting
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Chhatrapati Shivaji International Film Festival Chhatrapati Shivaji International Film Festival
    Pimple Nilakh-proximity Mumbay
    May 28, 2021
    Award Winner Photograpy: SKIN CHANGES IDENTITY
  • NO VIOLENCE, NO RACISM

    SKIN CHANGES IDENTITY
Artist Biography

Born on February 14th, 1969 in Altamura (Italy), she moved towards socio-psycho-pedagogical studies. Then she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bari, in the Latest Trends of Visual Arts and Performing Arts. She has also participated for many years in several workshops in Italy, still in the same field of visual arts (painting, video art ...), collaborating in the realization of various works art video, as a painter and a performer in video installations, focusing her artistic adventure on the theme of the body:
"Work-shop: she was part of a performance presentation by contemporary artist Cesare Pietroiusti 2009 (performance); artist Turca, Sukran Moral 2008 (Maria Dininni performer); Stefano Cagol 2008 protagonist of the new trend: a Videoart Manipolata; on December 3 and 4, 2010 she took part in a very important international congress with Jean Monnet “Á Mezzogiorno dell'Arte” where the artist Maria Dininni received a Training Certificate LUM PRIZE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART (Cultural hegemonies and knowledge of experience), with his own works of art, in Sala Bona Sforza, Castello Svevo, Bari. The conference was chaired by art critic Achille Bonito Oliva. Workshop of the two Napoletani artists Perino & Vele and the meeting with other two artists Botto e Bruno experimental workshop with also the participation as performer Maria Dininni; she also did a five-day “Photos and Video Therapy in Action” seminar with Oliviero Rossi and Judi Weiser".

Maria has received several prestigious awards such as the Special Prize with the jury’s congratulations of the F.A.O. on the theme: hunger in the world.
Maria has received several prestigious awards such as the Special Prize with the jury’s congratulations of the F.A.O. on the theme: hunger in the world.
> Since 1996 she has not stopped painting and searching through colors and shadows, passing from an artistic current to another.
> In 2010 she started a long project of photography and face painting : "SKIN CHANGES IDENTITY".
> In 2008 she directed a short film "La Mano Viola", 2 min.
> In 2016 she createdher own film production company "TRANSITUS FILM".
> In 2016 she co-produced a feature film "Thala my love".
> In 2017 she produced and directed a video art trilogy entitled "Sixth Sense": Waiting for Van Gogh, Amazon Rituals, and The cherries of Madonna.
> In 2017 she made an artistic video entitled "Foot meditation"
> In 2017 development, a feature-length documentary "Looking for Orson Welles"
> In 2020 he received his first selection in the category Best Experimental Film on FilmFreeway for the short film experimental "Holly Cherry" by the Rome Independent Prisma Awards
> In 2020 has been SELECTED for the exhibition phase in the virtual gallery of Experimento BIO 2020 (filmFreeway) for the project: " SKIN CHANGES IDENTITY"
>In 2021receives the Honorable Mention from the festival ICAN/LAX International Film Competition(Filmfreeway) for short film "AMAZONE RITUALS
> In 2021 she is officially selected as an AWARD WINNER in below category: BEST PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD da Team CSIFF, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Film Festival for project "SKIN CHANGES IDENTITY"
In April 5, 2023, the docu-fiction "Looking For Orson Welles" was selected as a Semi-Finalist at the Paris International Short Festival.

Add Artist Biography
Artist Statement

The face is anthropological. It hides under its mask our roots and identities.
The face is our identity, these traits speak of our ancestors and belongings.
But do we choose our parents, countries of origin or religions?
Do we have to defend our community?
Does Man even have the right to ask these questions?
The phenomenon of immigration is not a current subject, it is a subject of all time, but the rate of immigration and integration problems have become more dangerous at the moment.
Poverty, racism, and civil wars are the major factors of this epiphenomenon.
Men, women, and children risked their lives to cross seas and deadly waves.
Europe and America are the two destinies of those poor dreamers who want to change their lives and their skins, but their faces refuse to metamorphose.
In the old Roman civilization, there was what is called "IUS IMIGRANDI". It is the universal right to travel and try life in another country and another culture.
To immigrate is to have the courage to integrate into a new world. It is to accept the counterpart of the dream, which is, that of metamorphosing oneself.
Skin Changes Identity is a series of portraits in white and black. Static white faces in a black and moving universe to express the tragedy of leaving: to leave one’s roots elsewhere.
Roots drawn on the faces rise upwards and become the same tree and the same flying bird that seeks its little joy, that of being happy.
The same visual composition, the same color and the same dimensions just to confirm what a philosopher once said: “we are all immigrants even if we never leave our little town”