Marcella Conti – “Hoboken Sensations”
February 25 – April 8, 2018.
Even though Hoboken is very close to the Big Apple, the city has its own personality and charm. There’s a sense of familiarity, a warm environment where foreigners are welcomed to be themselves and keep their traditions alive. Small, family-owned businesses are an important part of Hoboken’s character, and are the main focus of the Museum’s latest art exhibit: “Hoboken Sensations: The photographs of Marcella Conti.”
Marcella Conti is a Brazilian photographer who has found in photography a true passion for capturing places and families. In 2016 she attended the International Center of Photography, where she studied documentary and visual journalism. There she finished the project, “Hoboken Sensations,” which was part of the exhibition, “Another kind of paradise,” at ICP, in New York City in 2016.
Conti found that the city of Hoboken has a feeling of coziness, warmth and tradition. Small family shops didn’t give way to large chains, as in most big cities. Stores founded by settling immigrants are kept alive in the families for generations and so are their memories and traditions. Their walls are covered with old photographs and memories from grandparents, and their business models, routines, and customs remain mostly the same. They continue to fight to survive a gentrification that makes cities impersonal in the modern world.
“When we move to a new place, especially a country with a different culture, we change our personality too,” Conti says. “After a while we don’t belong anymore to our birth place or to the new one. I wanted to show that the old can still live with the modern.
“This feeling of not belonging brings a certain loss of identity,” she added. “Living and working in such a big and cosmopolitan place like New York City can be comforting because many residents are immigrants too, but it can also make us feel like we’re missing something that defines who we are. Pieces of our culture, history, and memories that makes us unique are usually left behind.”
The exhibit opens Sunday, Feb. 25, with a free reception from 2 – 5 pm, and remain on view through Apr. 8.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.