Mario Giacomelli. Beyond the visible

The exhibition dedicated to Mario Giacomelli, among the top protagonists of the 20th century, celebrates a season in which the photography achieves an unprecedented poetic and expressive autonomy. The exhibition, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi e Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli, develops at the Centre Saint-Bénin by Aosta through an original language of contrasts and juxtapositions. The Marche artist's “magic realism” goes beyond the neo-realist vision of Italian photography, enriching it with an intimate and material expressionism.

The works in the exhibition arise from concrete situations - such as the’hospicethe seminar or the rural life - but go beyond the visible to become inner visions. Through a modality non-chronological, the exhibition presents the most significant nuclei of the research of Giacomelli, interweaving visions and references that run through his entire production. The public can admire over 150 images, between vintage prints, press specimens and documentary materials such as manuscripts e poems.

Among the most famous works is the series “I have no hands to caress my face”, dedicated to young seminarians, where the black and white tense and intense reveals an overabundance of tenderness. The investigation of Giacomelli on matter and on the sign transforms the landscapes in daring experiments bordering on the’abstraction, narrating the ambiguity of the human condition. This initiative, organised by Electa in collaboration with theMario Giacomelli Archive, restores the density of an artist who, starting from Senigallia, has conquered the permanent collections of the most prestigious international museums, including the MoMA by New York.