Centro internazionale Loris Maluguzzi

30 April - 15 June 2008

 

The exhibition presents over one hundred photographic prints acquired by DARC - the general direction for architecture and contemporary art of the MAXXI architecture collection, through a project commissioned on the theme of the Italian landscape and risk. The 2008 edition of the Italian Atlas is the second phase in a larger photographic research project to monitor the conditions and changes taking place in Italy. The fifteen photographers invited – chosen from an international panorama for their attention to the themes of the landscape and architecture – are Andrea Abati, Jordi Bernabò, Massimo Berruti, Andrea Botto, John Davies, David Farrell, Carlo Garzia, Alex S. Maclean, Walter Niedermayr, Fabio Ponzio, Marialba Russo, Paul Seawright, George Tatge, Fulvio Ventura and Massimo Vitali.
The photographers had full freedom of interpretation and their works explore five key themes that summarise (but are not all) the critical issues emerging in the contemporary landscape at risk: unauthorised building and abandonment, the excessive growth in the housing market, consumption linked to tourism and the permanence of our finest landscapes. The result is a multi-faceted interpretation. Documentary images join more metaphorical, or in some cases, abstract visions. Close-up gazes and ground-skimming shots contrast with striking aerial and panoramic views. Emblematic and elegant images combine with seemingly casual compositions. This is a compound “atlas” that aims to give an overview of a changing Italy. Together with the original photographic works, audiovisual material, including interviews with photographers and statistical data on the situation in Italy,  produced with the aid of CRESME, give the visitor greater insight into the exhibition.