A journey through small provincial museums. It is the exhibition A Tour not so Grand by Massimo Baldini

From November 9 to 22, the Carlo Gajani Foundation in Bologna will host A Tour not so Grand, an exhibition by Massimo Baldini that will present to the public a body of about thirty black-and-white photographs focused on the idea of “unconventional” travel.

The author has had the opportunity to visit provincial museums, small hidden institutions, places sometimes barely mentioned in tourist guides, when not completely forgotten, and has been fascinated by these often surprising realities. Through photography he intends to give us back the story of these experiences. His is an ironic yet participatory gaze, inclined to dwell on details capable of generating alternative narratives.
The journey that Massimo Baldini has undertaken is, as he himself suggests, “anticlassical” and “minimalist,” precisely: A Tour not so Grand. A journey all aimed at privileging not the “grandiose,” but rather what is curious, hidden, unusual (but no less attractive) certain places inItaly can offer, from theCivic Aquarium in Milan to the Monumental Cemetery of the Certosa in Bologna, the Accordion Museum in Castelfidardo or the Sanitary Arts Museum in Naples, to the Cathedral of Sant’Agata in Lecce, to name but a few.

Baldini does not chase (these are his words) “solemn or formally impeccable depictions,” but proposes “photographs that seek a particular perspective or foreshortening, suggest an eccentric point of view, welcome into the frame everything that should be diligently avoided or excluded: shadows, overlaps, intrusions, ordinary objects.” We will not, therefore, see “the dazzling cultural capitals, but the neglected provinces, generous, however, with ignored or forgotten treasures, shy surprises, restrained emotions,” and all that is amusing and bizarre in them.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog with an introductory text by Attilio Brilli, a writer, university lecturer and author of numerous essays on the history of travel literature, who concisely traces the cultural stages of the Grand Tour analyzing its evolution up to the present, characterized by the rise of new technologies and the proliferation of images. Through this path Brilli will arrive at the figure of Baldini’s art, emphasizing how much his work teaches us “to train the gaze, to observe the complexity of things, to grasp the irony of life in the incongruous accumulation, in the detail, in the insignificant waste, and to make distraction a resource of the imagination” (Brilli).
The exhibition will be open Monday through Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. with free admission.

Massimo Baldini holds a degree in Economic Sociology from theUniversity of Florence, and after teaching at theUniversity of Maryland, Munich branch, he worked for many years at the Società editrice il Mulino in Bologna as head of social and political sciences. He purchased his first camera, an Asahi Pentax, at age 16. Her photos have appeared on the covers of magazines and printed volumes. In 2017, a solo exhibition of his work entitled Italianité was held at the Maison de l’Italie in Paris. Also in 2017, the magazine “Frattura Scomposta” published a preview of the project A Tour not so Grand. He is preparing an exhibition titled Bassura, about the Po Delta region.

For info on the exhibition you can visit the Carlo Gajani Foundation website.

Pictured: Massimo Baldini, Gradoli (Viterbo), Museo del Costume Farnesiano (2015; fine-art giclée print on Hahnemühle paper in bn, 35 x 35 cm)

A journey through small provincial museums. It is the exhibition A Tour not so Grand by Massimo Baldini

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