Description
Gianni Berengo Gardin. Cose mai viste

Curated by Giovanna Calvenzi and Susanna Berengo Gardin.


6 June - 15 September 2024

Inauguration 6 June 2024 at 5.30 pm


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Gianni Berengo Gardin (1930), perhaps the best-known Italian photographer, published 263 books in his long and successful career. The last is dated 2023 when, assisted by his daughter Susanna, he reviewed his entire archive selecting 114 photographs, only five had been published beforehand. This has given way to Cose mai viste. Fotografie inedite, published by the Contrasto publishing company and exhibited for the first time at Ma.Co.F of Brescia last year.
For the Art Rooms of Alessandria, Giovanna Calvenzi and Susanna Berengo Gardin present a different, compact selection: sixty or so "cose mai viste" but with a focus on the men and women Berengo Gardin met during his work. Unprinted images, unpublished and yet still bear witness to his extraordinary skill. The journey through his archive begins in 1954 and ends in 2023. It crosses many Italian cities, reaches Paris, France, Croatia, Hungary, Spain, Norway and stops in Moscow, China, Japan, London and New York.


Berengo loves to declare that "What matters is the subject of the photograph not how you photograph", a declaration of intents which highlights the humility with which he talks about his work and which implicitly states he only wants to be a witness not an author. But independently from what Berengo wants, his photographs are much more than a testimony of what he saw: they also bear witness to his ability to tell people and events with respect and empathy, the involuntary desire to participate in what is happening before his lens and a wisdom in the choice of moments and composition which have made him a true master (even against his own will). In 1970, for his book "L'occhio come mestiere, l'amico fotografo" Cesare Colombo advised him to have "two eyes as trade, one to wink at the customer, while the other will be the most vigil and open". History has proved him wrong: Berengo and this exhibition of unpublished photos show that Berengo's eyes are both "vigil and open".

The exhibition closes with a section of unpublished photographs by Berengo Gardin shot in 1994 at the historical re-enactment of the Battle of Marengo at Villa Delavo. The master's photos make up the catalog entitled "Gianni Berengo Gardin - Marengo, 1994", which also contains texts by Giulio Massobrio, an expert in Napoleonic history. The catalog will be presented during the inauguration.

The exhibition is organised by ASM Costruire Insieme and by the City of Alessandria with the collaboration of Alexala, the local tourist board for the Province of Alessandria. The exhibition avails of the contribution of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Alessandria within the scope of the project "Alessandria e i grandi maestri della fotografia. La cultura per la comunità e lo sviluppo locale" originating from the exhibition by Gabriele Basilico "Ritorni a Beirut" always organised in Alessandria in 2023 by the Municipality and ASM Costruire Insieme, to bring national and international exhibitions to the city.


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Gianni Berengo Gardin
Cose mai viste

Curated by Giovanna Calvenzi and Susanna Berengo Gardin

6 June – 15 September 2024

Alessandria, Art Rooms
Via Machiavelli 13


OPENING TIMES

From Thursday to Sunday 3 pm to 7 pm.
The exhibition is also open on the same days and times in August 2024, including the Feast of the Assumption (15 August 2024).
On Saturday 31 August special opening to mark New Year's Eve in Alessandria from 3 pm to 11.30 pm.


TICKETS

full € 5
reduced € 3


For information:
0131 234266 – 349 9378256
serviziomusei@asmcostruireinsieme.it


Photographs:
- flyer;
- 21-34_Gianni Berengo Gardin, Marengo 1994;
- pg 94-95: GBG, Funeral boat, Venice 1960
- Scan_146: GBG, Great Britain, 1977