A photographic diary by Giovanna Silva guiding us through the United Nations Office headquarters in Geneva.
A chat-like narration unveils spaces, thoughts, eye catching details and is overlapped by images of halls, old phone booths filled with plastic wrap, textured walls, floors and ceilings, rows of tables and chairs, either straight or curving, like rollercoasters.
“I shoot five hundred and sixty-seven photos in thirtyfive minutes. The genre is known as now or never, and it's a fairly commonplace form of delirium in this line of work.”
The pictures, all taken with an iPhone, offer an instant and almost sneaky glimpse into the architecture and ordinary life of the building, now stripped of its inaccessible status.
Giovanna Silva (born 1980 in Milan) is an Italian photographer, writer and publisher. Her photographic books have been published by
Mousse, Hatje Cantz, and
Nero among others. Her work has been shown at the 10th and 14th Venice architectural biennales, MACRO in Rome, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice, the Triennale in Milan, the American Academy in Rome, FRAC Orléans, c/o Berlin, the Biennale de Rabat 2019, and the Italian Cultural Institute in New York. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of
Humboldt Books and the co-founder of San Rocco magazine. She teaches Photography at NABA Milan, IUAV Venice's master in photography program, and ISIA Urbino.
