With the support of L'Istituto Italiano di Cultura Sud Africa, Chiara Agradi visits Cape Town to explore the contrasts and resonances of photographic practice between Italy and South Africa, with a particular interest in the use of Polaroid as a medium and a process tool. She cites Polaroid’s invention of instant, automatic image publishing as a “radical revolution in terms of technology, society and culture”, investigating in depth its use by artists, but also by government agencies, and commercial and amateur photographers.

Currently based in Paris, Agradi is working towards a PhD at École du Louvre and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her area of research is the correlation between the commercial activities of the Polaroid company and artistic creation, focusing on the practice of Italian photographers from the seventies to the present day. She is a member of the curatorial board of the Polaroid Foundation.

A4 Arts Foundation has previously collaborated with L'Istituto Italiano di Cultura Sud Africa to support the residency of Gian Maria Tosatti in District Six – a historically significant part of Cape Town – towards his large scale installation My Hart Is So Leeg Soos 'n Spieël (My Heart is a Void, the Void is a Mirror) in 2019. It was Tosatti who recommended Agradi for this next chapter of South African/Italian cooperation.

A4 will facilitate Agradi’s research visit, introducing her to the key themes and histories of South African photography by providing access to our archive, our database of research and past projects, and our network of practitioners.

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A4's Reading Room is an adaptable space attached to A4's Library and Archive. Intended to solve for form depending on its required function, it as at once a book-ish environment for reading and contemplation and a place to unpack artists' archives. The Reading Room's inter-leading doors become walls when locked to create a stand-alone spacial research studio that hosts residents and practices site-specific work that most-often is connected to packing and unpacking projects as a form of research.