David Bowie in Andrew Kent's shots at PAN in Naples

A journey through one of the most intense periods of David Bowie ’s career with lots of “behind the scenes”: this is David Bowie: the passenger. By Andrew Kent, an exhibition scheduled at the Palazzo delle Arti Naples from Saturday, Sept. 24, through Jan. 29, 2023. Six years after the death of the London musician, actor and singer, the Navigare srl company, with curators Vittoria Mainoldi and Maurizio Guidoni of Ono Arte, is dedicating an in-depth look at one of the most beloved legends of the 20th century world art scene, through 60 photographs and memoirs by the great photographer Andrew Kent, who cultivated a close relationship of friendship and trust with the star, along with nearly 90 memorabilia and mementos from various private collections.

In particular, the exhibition turns the spotlight on the decisive period that Bowie experienced in 1976 on theIsolar tour to present the album Station to station with 66 concerts in four months between Canada, the US and Europe. Of the European tour, comprising 25 stops, Kent, who became an official photographer and formed a close bond of trust with Bowie, documents from a privileged perspective performances and travel, including ships, trains, hotels, but also Bowie’s exploration of cities and their most iconic sites such as Moscow’s Red Square, impassable East Berlin, Victoria Station in London, where the incident of Bowie’s alleged Nazi salute occurred. These are images that restore not only the singer’s character and interests, but a historical insight into the era and the spirit of the times in the Cold War climate.

Also numerous are Kent’s personal recollections of specific episodes, which accompany the exhibition path studded with black-and-white and color photographs, reproductions of Bowie’s clothing and tour memorabilia, posters of the films in which the artist starred confirming his talent and versatility, magazine and LP covers, videos, reconstructions of symbolic environments of the trip, and much more. Valuable in this gallery is the contribution of passionate collectors such as Italian Mauro Luppi, recognized as one of the world’s leading Bowie connoisseurs.

TheEuropean Isolar Tour also marked the metamorphosis from the glittering Bowie - Ziggy Stardust to the new refined alter ego Thin White Duke. The German leg proved decisive: from there, the following three years would see the birth of the acclaimed Berlin Trilogy, with the albums Low (1977), Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979), and Bowie would forge a closer bond with another musical sacred monster, Iggy Pop, with whom he shared a stay in the capital, as well as the trip to Moscow documented by Andrew Kent, and fertile artistic collaborations, such as for the song The Passenger (1977).

After the Milan stop, the exhibition now arrives in Naples with a new layout and two new exhibition sections dedicated to Bowie’s film career-born right in the mid-1970s-and to costumes, the latter in collaboration with the three-year Fashion Design course of theAcademy of Fine Arts of Bologna under the coordination of Rossella Piergallini, to delve into Bowie’s multifaceted nature as a man and artist.

Andrew Kent(Los Angeles, Feb. 20, 1948) is an acclaimed photographer who has created many of the most iconic images of the rock superstars of the 1970s, including Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Jim Morrison, KISS, Iggy Pop, and Frank Zappa, although undoubtedly, Kent’s most important collaboration was with David Bowie from 1975 to 1978.

David Bowie: the passenger. By Andrew Kent is produced in collaboration with the City of Naples and PAN. Official Carrier: Trenitalia.

For all information, you can visit the event’s official website.

David Bowie in Andrew Kent's shots at PAN in Naples

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