Anouk Tschanz
Refugia
a cura di Edoardo De Cobelli
Anouk Tschanz, Blatt, 2023. Gelatin-silver print on baryta paper, 27,3 x 40,1 cm. Courtesy of the artist
"Looking for insects in Cornovecchio is a search for refugia—tiny islands of life in a sea of industrial corn."
The costone is a sloping strip of land that separates the typical agricultural fields of the Po Valley and that, especially in the past, stood as the final embankment against the flooding of the Adda River. Among the expanses of maize that produce the grain, this strip forms a narrow, elongated reserve hosting poplar, black alder, and wild cherry trees, providing a habitat for local fauna.
Within this small mosaic of rows, groves, and wetlands along the slope lies a hidden world that artist Anouk Tschanz explores using the tools of photography but with the gaze of an entomologist. Close-up black-and-white shots capture the insects inhabiting this window of biodiversity, from the rarest and smallest to the most common and familiar.
An island in a sea of earth- and ochre-colored fields, the slope becomes an island of life where the fox exchanges its home with the badger, and the lives of animal species intertwine within just a few meters of terrain.
Thanks to: the Mayor Alessandro Rossi, Francesco Cattaneo, and Antica Trattoria della Costa.
Anouk Tschanz (Bern, Switzerland, 1994) lives and works in Zurich. She studied at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL), in Switzerland and at University of Arts Berlin ((UdK) from 2017 to 2021. Her photographic work moves effortlessly between technical precision and conceptual abstraction. Her close-up shots exist on the boundary between form and the dissolution of form, opening interpretations of the subject that go beyond mere figuration. Tschanz works with black-and-white analog photography and prints her images in her own studio. Her most recent solo exhibitions were held at Camera Austria, Graz (AT, 2024) and Coalmine Winterthur (CH, 2021).
Edoardo De Cobelli (Bergamo, 1992) is a curator and researcher at the University of Milano-Bicocca, where he is pursuing a PhD in Intangible Heritage and Socio-Cultural Innovation. He is Artistic Director of Spazio Volta in Bergamo. He was part of the curatorial teams of the Quadriennale di Roma 2020–2024 and the San Fedele Prize. His practice connects art and urban regeneration, with a focus on the notion of heritage communities. For Una Boccata d’Arte he has curated the Lombardia projects of Jacopo Benassi in Gardone Riviera (2023), Sofia Silva in Palazzo Pignano (2024) and Aiko Shimotsuma in Brunate (2025).
A village in the Lodi valley, Cornovecchio is shaped by the rhythm of the countryside and its deep connection with the Adda River. Embankments, fields, and farmsteads outline a well-defined landscape, where time is still marked by agricultural work and the passing of the seasons.
The historic center preserves an intimate character, enriched by a noble villa which, with its courtyard and austere façade, tells a story of ancient prestige. Rural heritage and local traditions define the life of the village, between the humid heat that weighs on the cultivated fields in summer and the gray silence of winter fog.
In Cornovecchio, the past is not nostalgia but a tangible presence, visible in the marks left on the land over time, amid the murmur of irrigation ditches and the flowing water of the canals.