Culture - NOMINEE: Chiara Dazi

The Republic of Moldova was part of the Soviet Union. Today, it is an independent country with a self-declared Transnistrian region in the East, an autonomous Turkish-speaking Gagauzian province in the South, a border to Ukraine to the North, one to Romania and the EU to the West.


Photographing the Moldovan national football is the attempt to show daily life in a nation looking for normality, while building new identities facing its controversial past and present.

The stadium is a space where positions are shared and outed reflecting the society outside of it. As a Soviet heritage, sport culture plays an important role and though football is a new phenomenon in the country, it succeeds to reflect its societal context: along with symbols of the past disappearing from the landscape of the stadia, new ones appear and occasionally underlying conflicts are acerbated.
The football national landscape embodies most of the contrasts Moldova is rich on. 
It also provides a centre around which local identities are reinforced but at the same time it works as sole common ground for communication, where clubs from the different regions play together every Sunday on a shared field, accepting to sit side by side on the bench while running for the goal to win.

About author:
Chiara Dazi was born in the Italian Po valley. She studied languages and received a degree in communication sciences at the Università di Bologna with a thesis on German Ostalgie, or nostalgia for the former GDR. After working three years at the archive of the agency VU’ in Paris, she focused on her personal photography projects. She is interested in European issues, how we deal with borders and collective memories and the influence those have on identities. She mainly approaches her subjects with empathy and a regard for intimacy. Now working as a documentary photographer in Berlin, after graduating from Berlin’s Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie with her project Wandertage about the traditional trip of the German craftsmen and craftswomen communities. Currently researching on border-crossing sports communities in the Republic of Moldova.

Education (Photography/Art related)
2016 International Summer School of Photography Certificate, LV ISSP Masterclass with Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti, Reportage and
Documentary Photography
2014 Goldrausch Künstlerinnen Projekt, female artists postgraudate program
2009 - 2011 Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie und Gestaltung, Berlin.
2010 International Summer School of Photography (ISSP), Riga, Latvia

Solo Exhibitions
2016 Wandertage – Călătorind pentru a munci și muncind pentru a călători, Muzeul Naţional de Etnografie şi Istorie Naturala, Chisinau, MD
2014 365, HIL-Preis, Alte Synagoge, Deidesheim, Germany
2010 Wolkenstores: Im Schatten der DDR, Maison Heinrich-Heine, Paris

Awards and Fellowships
2017 Project Grant: Kulturaustausch - Berlin Senatskanzlei, photography project in Georgia
2016 Exhibition and Travel Grant: Reisezuschüsse für Auslandsvorhaben - Berlin Senatskanzlei, transport and travel for personal exhibition at
the National Museum of Ethnography, Chisinau, MD
2015 Travel Grant for AIR: ECF Step Beyond Travel Grant for the Kiosk Research Residence, Chisinau, MD
Project Grant: SCAM - Brouillion d'un rêve, French grant for photography project in MD
2014 Education Scholarship: Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt Art IT Stipendium, Berlin, D
2013 Photography Award: Abisag-Tüllmann-Preis (Honourable Mention), Frankfurt Main, D
Photography Award: HIL–Award (1. Prize), Deidesheim, D
Artist in Residence: Artist in residence, 33 Officina Creativa, Toffia, IT
2012 Photography Award: Lucie Foundation Emerging Scholarship (Finalist), Los Angeles, USA
Photography Award: Winephoto International Photo Contest (Finalist) Mogliano Veneto, IT
2011 Photography Award: SFR Jeunes Talents Award, Festival Circulation(s), Paris, F
2010 Photography Award: Bourse du Talent Reportage (Finalist), Paris, F
Photography Award: Dokfünf. Schlagwort Fußball: Fokus auf dem Hintergrund (1.), D


Group Exhibitions (selection)
2016 Lebensraum, Tête, Berlin, Germany
Garten, ParisBerlin > Fotogroup, Goethe Institut Lille, France
Place(s) like home, Szuterén, Budapest, Hungary
2015 Place(s) like home, Zpace, Museum Zemstvei, Chisinau, Moldova
Garden, Goethe Institut Paris, France
Garden, ParisBerlin >Fotogroup, Fotohaus, Rencontres d'Arles, France
Famille/Familie, ParisBerlin >Fotogroup, Tête Galerie, Berlin
365, Goethe Institut Toulouse, France
2014 Übergang, ParisBerlin >Fotogroup, Mois de la Photo OFF - Espace des Arts sans frontières, Paris
Berlin Photobook, Carpentier Galerie, Berlin
Photobookshow, Brighton Photo Biennale, Jubilee Library, Brighton, UK
HELIUM – Goldrausch 2014, Projektraum Flutgraben e. V., Berlin
Übergang, ParisBerlin >Fotogroup, Galerie 22, Rencontres d'Arles, France
Abisag Tüllmann Preis 2013, Heussenstamm Galerie, Frankfurt am Main
Famille/Familie, ParisBerlin Fotogroup, Festival Transphotographiques, Lille, France
Photobookshow, Galerii Vasli Souza, Malmö, Sweden
2013 Stories, Memories, and Histories, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, USA
Blue Monday, Kleister, Hotel Bogota, Berlin
ort/zeit/los, Kunstverein Tiergarten | Galerie Nord, Berlin
2012 Photo d'Hôtel Photo d'Auteur, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
Sports Factory, Lille3000 Festival, Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille
2011 Familienbande, Fotogalerie Friedrichshain, Berlin
SFR Jeunes Talents, Le Bal, Paris
Circulation(s), Festival de la jeune photographie européenne, Galerie Côté Seine et Trianon, Parc de Bagatelle, Paris
I mages Singulières Festival, screening, Sète, France