The most important photographers, past and present, and the Macchiaioli: here are five must-see exhibitions in the month of May.
Oliviero Toscani 80 Years as a Situazionista at Palazzo Albergati until September 4, 2022
Palazzo Albergati in Bologna presents until September 4, 2022 the exhibition Oliviero Toscani. 80 Years as a Situazionista curated by Nicolas Ballario organized by Arthemisia in honor of the Italian photographer in the year of his eightieth birthday.
The exhibition narrates the career of the great photographer with 100 photographs representative of the creative power and career of Toscani.
Recurring themes include racism, the death penalty, AIDS, war, sex, violence, anorexia, and much more. Oliviero Toscani 80 Years as a Situazionista indeed showcases both the most famous campaigns that have shaken public opinion and the photos of a less known and more intimate Oliviero Toscani.
We find Jesus Jeans ‘Follow Me Who Loves Me’, Kiss Between Priest and Nun from 1992, the Three Hearts White/Black/Yellow from 1996, No-Anorexia from 2007, the images created for fashion by Donna Jordan to Claudia Schiffer, up to those of Monica Bellucci and dozens of iconic portraits such as those of Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Carmelo Bene and Federico Fellini.
An entire room is dedicated to Razza Umana, the project conceived by Toscani through which he photographed 10,000 people in hundreds of squares around the world, creating the largest photographic archive existing on the morphological and social differences of humanity.
The Light of Truth. The Legacy of Macchiaiola Painting. From Fattori to Ghiglia at Palazzo delle Paure until June 19, 2022
Until June 19, Palazzo delle Paure in Lecco hosts The Light of Truth. The Legacy of Macchiaiola Painting. From Fattori to Ghiglia, as part of a series of exhibitions, active since 2019, aimed at deepening the Italian artistic scene of the 19th century.
The exhibition, curated by Simona Bartolena, produced and realized by ViDi – Visit Different, in collaboration with the Municipality of Lecco and the Urban Museum System of Lecco, tells through ninety works from public and private collections, the theme of post-Macchiaiola painting.
The Light of Truth. The Legacy of Macchiaiola Painting. From Fattori to Ghiglia is a valuable opportunity to discover a heterogeneous and complex group of authors, from the Gioli brothers to the Tommasi family, from Llewelyn Lloyd to Ulvi Liegi, from Oscar Ghiglia to Plinio Nomellini, from Mario Puccini to Giovanni Bartolena. The exhibition path starts from the example of the masters – from Giovanni Fattori to Silvestro Lega – up to the more contemporary results achieved by Oscar Ghiglia and Lorenzo Viani.
Roger Ballen. The Place of the Upside Down at Palazzo del Duca and Palazzetto Baviera until October 2, 2022
Senigallia City of Photography hosts until October 2, 2022 Roger Ballen. The Place of the Upside Down curated by Massimo Minini. The exhibition Roger Ballen is part of “Senigallia City of Photography” and participates in the LIX Venice Biennale in the South African pavilion, the adopted homeland of the photographer.
The exhibition, a solo show of the photographer, is divided between the venues of Palazzo del Duca and Palazzetto Baviera.
At the Palazzo del Duca, a selection of works from the collection of Massimo Minini, one of the most important Italian gallerists, is presented: over sixty black and white photographs from his most famous series such as Outland (2000), Shadow Chamber (2005), Boarding House (2009), and Asylum of the Birds (2014).
At the Palazzetto Baviera, there are 12 unpublished color photographs from the artist’s personal collection. These photos mark a new phase of technical experimentation in his poetic vision.
The photographs of Ballen are characterized by being disconcerting and extreme, at times absurd and dreamlike; they depict places and situations that are implausible yet perfectly real, just like in a dream.
The Gaze Returned at the Museo di Santa Giulia until July 24, 2022
The Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia hosts, until July 24, the exhibition The Gaze Returned, which is part of the 5th edition of the Brescia Photo Festival.
The Gaze Returned offers a long journey through the various declinations of the portrait genre, from the early years of the twentieth century to selfies. During the visit, one can admire photographs by anonymous authors and great masters such as Steve McCurry, Sebastião Salgado, Ugo Mulas, Gian Paolo Barbieri, Alberto Korda, Edward S. Curtis, and many others.
The exhibition path, divided into eleven sections, opens with shots where the subject assumes studied positions or attitudes, highlighting certain aspects related to a situation or their personality, followed by a section focused on the ethereal and refined representation of women.
The characters captured range from Marilyn Monroe, Mao Zedong, Marlene Dietrich, Ernesto Che Guevara, Audrey Hepburn, Sofia Loren, and Cary Grant.
European Photography 2022 at the Chiostri di San Pietro, Palazzo da Mosto, and Palazzo dei Musei in Reggio Emilia
From April 29 to June 12, 2022, in Reggio Emilia, the EUROPEAN PHOTOGRAPHY festival returns, promoted and produced by the Fondazione Palazzo Magnani in collaboration with the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
The festival involves several venues.
The Chiostri di San Pietro will be the heart of the event, hosting as many as ten exhibitions. Here, the historical exhibition of this edition, Mary Ellen Mark: The Lives of Women, dedicated to Mary Ellen Mark, a documentary photographer famous for creating intensely vivid and revolutionary photo essays that explore the reality of people, especially women, in a variety of complex, often difficult and painful situations, is set up.
Also featured are Nicola Lo Calzo with the project titled Binidittu, Hoda Afshar with the shots from Speak The Wind, Carmen Winant with Fire on World, the Japanese Seiichi Furuya with the exhibition First trip to Bologna 1978 / Last trip to Venice 1985, and then Ken Grant with the exhibition Benny Profane, Guanyu Xu with photographs from Temporarily Censored Home, Chloé Jafé with I give you my life, Jonas Bendiksen with The Book of Veles, and finally Alexis Cordesse with Talashi.
At the Palazzo da Mosto, until June 12, 2022, there is Jitka Hanzlovà, a photographic exhibition by the Czech photographer that tells what it means to be young for boys aged 11 to 15 in Reggio Emilia, also analyzing the repercussions caused by Covid.
At the Palazzo dei Musei, until January 8, the exhibition “In a Different Scale. Luigi Ghirri, Italy in Miniature and New Perspectives” curated by Joan Fontcuberta, Matteo Guidi, and Ilaria Campioli.
The exhibition is part of the exhibition and theoretical reflection undertaken by the city of Reggio Emilia, focusing on the theme of the Archive.
Here are displayed the photos that Luigi Ghirri took repeatedly at Italia in Miniatura, an amusement park that fascinated him and where he found numerous creative inspirations: the illusion and trompe-l’oeil, the distance between reality and its representation, the emergence of an artificial nature, the consumption of touristified reality, the viewer’s gaze and their scopophilic voracity, and, above all, the paradoxes arising from the processes of scaling down, according to a mechanism that links the park’s miniatures to photography itself.
