The experience of some exhibitions can prove difficult to translate into catalogue form. This is the case with the remarkable set of pictures that Giovanna Calvenzi is presenting in Milan at the sublime Palazzo della Ragione, in which forty local and foreign photographers explore their visions of the country, from the Po Delta to Sardinia and to Milan. It features single works by famous names like Luigi Ghirri, Gabriele Basilico, Berengo Gardin and Mario Giacomelli, as well as younger artists like Paola de Pietri, Tommaso Bonaventura and Alessandro Imbriaco.
The layout and display of the exhibition works especially well. Each photographer is given his or her own space, and their photographs accompanied by texts they wrote themselves. There are new and vintage prints from public and private collections, and works that are dense and effective (Antonio Biasiucci), poetic (Vittore Fossati—a revelation) and rarely seen (up-and-coming fashion photographer Toni Thorimbert). Franco Fontana abandons his graphic style to explore Modena by night, while Lisetta Carmi’s series shows us Genoa’s longshoremen, and Nino Migliori’s work is simply extraordinary. Unlike other exhibitions, visitors here are free to create their own paths through the show, a quality that is lost in the transition in the chronological catalogue, which is especially a shame because it features so many lesser-known works, like a color commission by Ugo Mulas, which one longs to experience .
The evolutions in both Milan and photography from the 1950s to the present day can be seen in the work of Paolo Monti and Vincenzo Castella, demonstrating how central the representation of the landscape and the exploration of urban issues have been to Italian photography (unlike in France). And so, while we await with curiosity photographs by foreigners, we leave satisfied, followed by the faces from the classical paintings which Mario Cresci selected and used so subtly—they eyes move…
– Christian Caujolle
EXHIBITION
Italia Inside
Through July 20th, 2015
Palazzo della Ragione Fotografia
Piazza Mercanti, 1
Milano
Italy
T + 39 0243353535
