Annalisa Sonzogni is an artist who works with photography, film and installation.
Identikit II is the second of a series of photographic projects as part of an ongoing inquiry into the mechanisms of site-specific installation in photography. Annalisa’s series draws on contemporary architectural debates around relationships between image and space, as well as debates in fine art around participatory practices involving installation.
The focus and physical context for this inquiry is a little-known gem of 1960s architecture. A former Lilian Baylis school, built in 1964 by the Architects’ Co-Partnership (ACP) for the London County Council in the Borough of Lambeth. It served its function as a school up until 2005 and after that it has been used for community programmes. In 2011 the site, by now Grade II listed, was acquired by Henley Homes Plc, who restored and converted the buildings into new homes in close liaison with English Heritage and planning and conservation teams.
The assembly hall is the only part of the old school that will remain public after the site has been fully developed. The installation is the first attempt to re-appropriate and re-open the assembly hall to the community after many years of being closed. It presents a cycle of 12 large-scale photographs, displayed inside the space of the assembly hall, fixed on mobile structures that, through curtains, mirrors and original features, enter into a spatial dialogue with the unique architecture of the former hall.
Annalisa’s work has been exhibited internationally, including Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Croma store, Bangalore, The Trampery London Fields, London, Alkovi Gallery, Helsinki and Le Botanique, Brussels. Find out more about Annalisa’s work here.
