170 years of restoration in Milan: an exhibition of Marco Introini's photographs

From Oct. 16 to Nov. 30, 2024, Galleria San Fedele in Milan is hosting an exhibition by Marco Introini (Milan, 1968), a leading author of architectural photography, entitled Restorations in Milan. From the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio to the Velasca Tower. 170 years of history of the Gasparoli family. The exhibition, under the patronage of the Milan College of Engineers, is organized on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the founding of the Gasparoli s.r.l. group, a leading company in the restoration, conservation and maintenance of historic and monumental buildings. On display are 30 shots by Introini, taking the visitor on a journey through several centuries of Milanese history, among the most important and prestigious religious and public buildings, private residences, and monuments in the Lombard capital, the subject of Gasparoli’s restoration work. The exhibition route starts from the basilicas of Sant’Ambrogio and San Lorenzo Maggiore to reach the 16th-century church of San Fedele built to a design by Pellegrino Tibaldi and two symbols of the city, such as the Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. An itinerary that continues into the 19th century with Palazzo Bagatti Valsecchi, Palazzo Turati, Palazzo Tarsis, then into the 20th century with Palazzo Broggi and Palazzo Ex Unicredit in Piazza Cordusio, or the Central Station. Marco Introini’s images also capture the Arco della Pace or the Porta Ticinese arch and masterpieces of contemporary architecture such as Giovanni Muzio’s Cà Brutta or BBPR’s Torre Velasca. Photographing urban evolutionary processes constitutes, for Introini, a tool for a reflection on architecture and the city by analyzing the light that envelops structures. The desire to document the conservative and artistic gesture of restoration becomes an opportunity to create works of art that tell the story through images.

“Our experience in the site activities is full of surprises but above all of emotions,” says Paolo Gasparoli “For example, while entering for a restoration in a narrow underground passage, we were able to see a stone basin, unknown to most people, which the Milanese tradition tells us was the first baptismal font in Milan, called Fonte di San Barnaba. Deeply moving was also to have contributed to the investigation and then exhumation of the remains of the martyrs of the Five Days of Milan, under the crypt of the monument of the same name.”

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 2 to 6 p.m.

Notes on the artist

Marco Introini (Milan, 1968) holds a degree in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic. A documentary photographer of landscape and architecture, he teaches Techniques of the Representation of Space at the Politecnico di Milano and Photography of Architecture at the Bauer School of Photography. Included in the twenty leading architectural photographers of the last ten years by Letizia Gagliardi in La Misura dello Spazio (Contrasto 2010). In 2015 he documented architecture from the postwar period to the present in Lombardy for the Region and MIBACT, he is invited by OIGO (International Observatory on Large Projects) to the photographic campaign on Calabria, The Third Island. The project Milano Illuminista is selected by the Malerba Fund for Photography. In 2016 he exhibited, with Gasparoli Srl, Ritratti di Monumenti at MA*GA Museo d’Arte Gallarate; he participated in the XXI Triennale with Warm Modernity_Indian Paradigm (curated by Maddalena D’Alfonso), which, with a book of the same name, won the 2016 RedDot Award. In 2018 he was involved in the projects: Mantua, architectures from the 12th century to the 20th century (Politecnico di Milano); Ormea: signs of the landscape for the Nasagonado Art Project, and with Francesco Radino Gli scali ferroviari di Milano for the AEM Foundation. In 2019, he was invited to the Bocs Art Cosenza artist residency, and in the same year he was invited to create a photographic project on the Maritime Republics for the Pisa Architecture Biennial curated by Alfonso Femia. His works are preserved at the MAXXI Foundation, CSAC, MA*GA Museum, AEM Foundation.

170 years of restoration in Milan: an exhibition of Marco Introini's photographs

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