Eugenio Intini: In the flash of a day. Exhibition curation  (Milan, 2024).

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In the Flash of a Day traces the photographic practice of Eugenio Intini through the lens of discontinuity; that sudden rupture in the narrative, personal or collective, which destabilises perception and reveals the fragility of our temporal certainties.
When the unexpected interrupts, it also illuminates: opening a space for new mappings of the present.

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The exhibition questions whether we are now transitioning toward a fourth globalisation — one defined by algorithms, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and climate change. In such an era, where geography and duration themselves falter, In the Flash of a Day imagines a world in which time unfolds non-linearly — as a constellation of moments detached from chronology yet deeply interwoven.

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Structured as a fictional day, the exhibition reassembles the entirety of Intini’s visual archive into a single temporal arc. Each photograph becomes a fragment of light and duration; an echo of the artist’s dialogue with Flemish painting, metaphysical atmospheres, and the crisp luminosity of his years in Finland.

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Through these images, Intini suspends time itself: the fleeting becomes continuous, the discontinuous coherent. His gaze transforms Zeno’s paradox into a poetic condition, where stillness and motion coexist.

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In the Flash of a Day unfolds as both an ending and a beginning: a long exposure that captures the rhythm of a life translated into light.
Like the first Polaroid, freshly developed, it sketches an image still in the making: a glimpse into a future where ubiquity, memory, and imagination converge.

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Curatorial text:

"There are concepts that are believed to be eternal, ideas considered true a priori, on which entire systems of thought are built on and which are rarely questioned until there's a tear in the paper sky (Luigi Pirandello). With limited ability to foresee and without the capacity to prepare, we find ourselves facing that moment of discontinuity in the narrative, both personal and collective, which casts a shadow of uncertainty. The unforeseen paralyzes and transforms the perception of reality, putting established reference points into crisis. However, this also opens the door to alternative possibilities and suggests that not only is it plausible, but it is also necessary to outline a new map of the present.

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Is it reasonable to say that we are in a transition phase between the third and a potential fourth globalization, one characterized by the advent of algorithms, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and climate change? In an era where geography, distances, and even the concept of time are being questioned, it seems legitimate to ask what would happen if the very notion of time and duration were to change, opening the door to scenarios in which the traditional temporal structure would disappear and time would be experienced in a nonlinear way, like a whimsical journey through fragments of moments from different years and places.

In The Flash of a Day assimilates the entire artistic output of Eugenio Intini into a sort of fictional day, exploring the idea that life consists of single moments of arbitrary duration. This journey through his photographic archive finds the common denominator in each capture in Eugenio's relationship with light, enriched by his passion for Flemish painting and metaphysics. The result is a unique poetics, also influenced by the time Eugenio spent in Finland.

His photographs, sometimes elusive in terms of temporal and contextual identification, offer a timeless freshness: embracing Zeno's paradox, which challenged the concept of movement and the continuous perception of space and time, the discontinuity becomes an opportunity for surprising events. Holding it all together is the profound coherence that Intini demonstrates, which reassembles fragments of distant moments into a new balance, making his images unique.

Indulging in speculation, In The Flash of a Day, like a premonitory dream, projects into a future where ubiquity will be a tangible reality, offering a preliminary vision of what could be. This exhibition brings together only a selection of the moments captured through Intini's lens; used to question the idea of geography, space, time, and duration.

In The Flash of a Day is a beginning, a long exposure that sketches a frame, assembling a selection of what has passed before the lens and left an impression on film, in the mind, and in Eugenio's practice. It is the first Polaroid, just captured, that opens up future opportunities for deeper exploration, zooming in on specific details of this grand image created in the flash of a day—a grand day."

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Artist: Eugenio Intini
Curation: Riccardo Rizzetto
Art direction: Alberta Chiminelli​

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