Florence, a major photography exhibition at Villa Bardini and Forte Belvedere

A major exhibition of only female photographers: this is Fotografe!, the exhibition that Villa Bardini and Forte Belvedere, in Florence, are hosting from June 18 to October 2, 2022. The exhibition is curated by Emanuela Sesti and Walter Guadagnini, and is presented and promoted by the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia and the Fondazione CR Firenze, in collaboration with the City of Florence. This is a new exhibition project whose absolute protagonists are the female photographers of yesterday and today, and which unites the rooms of the two hosting venues in a single, rich and evocative itinerary that places original works from the Alinari Archives alongside contemporary productions. The exhibition is part of Forte di Belvedere’s summer cultural offerings curated by Museo Novecento.

Starting from the outcomes of the research in the Alinari Archives, the exhibition project creates an itinerary that synchronously weaves and re-proposes a history that from the photography of the origins goes through the twentieth century to the present day, placing early photographic procedures side by side with contemporary experimentation. The exhibition therefore does not follow a chronological course, but is constructed by analogies, differences, suggestions, themes and genres, first and foremost the photographic portrait, bringing together in a single path photographs and female photographers born in different eras, places and social contexts: the intent is not so much and not only the search for a specific and as much as ever hypothetical “female gaze,” but the identification of the centrality of certain personalities-often underestimated-in the development of photographic research since its beginnings. The presence of contemporary female authors is intended to constitute a further moment of reflection that invests today’s artistic practices, starting from the relationship with the past and with memory, whether individual or collective, within a world in constant change, where even social roles and the paradigms related to them are in constant flux.

On display are vintage prints, albums and negatives from the Alinari Archives, works from the diverse collections of more than forty female photographers, many of them previously unpublished, starting with those of the first daguerreotypists of the 1840s, such as the French Bernardine Caroline Théodora Hirza Lejeune (Paris 1824-1895) from the Unique Objects fund, which was restored, catalogued and digitized in 2021 also thanks to the support of the Fondazione CR Firenze. The original prints by. Julia Margaret Cameron, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, Lucia Moholy, Maria Mulas, Ketty La Rocca, Lisetta Carmi, Diane Arbus, Bettina Rheims, to name but a few, are confronted with the productions of ten Italian female authors, Eleonora Agostini, Arianna Arcara, Federica Belli, Marina Caneve, Francesca Catastini, Myriam Meloni, Giulia Parlato, Roselena Ramistella, Sofia Uslenghi, Alba Zari, representatives of the young generation, born after 1980, which is making a name for itself in these years both nationally and internationally, present with works that interact with the Alinari historical heritage. The authors thus trigger an ideal conversation with the historical photographs and with the archive itself, so as to enhance their materiality and aura, thus also proposing new keys to interpreting the images from a sometimes distant past.

Thanks to Calliope Arts, a nonprofit organization based in Florence and London and created to enhance and safeguard the cultural heritage of women through its Restoration Conversations project, the exhibition is also enriched by two sections devoted to funds from the Alinari Archives: that of the sisters Wanda Wulz (Trieste, 1903 - 1984) and Marion Wulz (Trieste, 1905 - 1990) and that of Edith Arnaldi (Vienna, 1884 - Rome, 1978), known above all as a writer and artist of the Futurist area under the pseudonym Rosa Rosà.

From these archives are taken unpublished works, some printed directly from the original negatives, which return to public use the results of an initial reconnaissance on hitherto less explored materials from these archival nuclei, of extraordinary interest for the history of photography. On the one hand, the Wulz fund (known for the international renown of Wanda’s futurist works, including the creation of the famous overprint “Io+gatto”), of which negatives will also be exhibited at Villa Bardini, which will hold important surprises for the public and scholars, particularly on the working and artistic association with her sister Marion. On the other, at Forte Belvedere, an archive completely to be explored, essentially a previously unseen one, which will allow, thanks in part to the research of art historian Lisa Hanstein, to bring to light the photographic production of such a multifaceted artist as Edith Arnaldi, characterized by portraits and travel photographs taken in Italy, Europe and Africa, and by portraits taken in her Roman studio, functional to the investigation of the author’s Futurist pictorial production.

During the opening, dialogues with the artists in the exhibition and free workshops for families and children aged 7 to 12 will be organized at Villa Bardini. Regarding the latter, two types of activities are planned and included in the exhibition ticket: the workshop “The Art of Seeing. Atelier for young photographers,” curated by MUS.E, during which children will be able to approach the language of photography in a playful way; and the workshop “Herbarium in cyanotype,” curated by Photonomia, in which children will be guided in the creation of photographic prints using the cyanotype technique. In both cases, places are limited and reservations are required.

Also curated by MUS.E, guided tours of the exhibition Photographers! will be held at Fort Belvedere every Friday and Sunday at 5 and 6:30 pm. The tour will also include Rä di Martino’s exhibition Play it again and the extraordinary military architecture of Forte Belvedere. The tours, for young people and adults, will cost €2.50 for residents Metropolitan City of Florence and €5 for nonresidents Metropolitan City of Florence, free for disabled and accompanying persons, tour guides and interpreters, ICOM, ICOMOS and ICCROM members, Florentine Card holders (within the limit of three annual activities). 2-for-1 reduction for Unicoop Firenze members. Free reserved tours for Unicoop Florence members: Sundays June 19 and 26, July 10-17-24-31, August 14-21-28, September 11-18-25. For more information and reservations write to info@musefirenze.it or call + 39 055 2768224 (Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-5 p.m.).

Photographers. From the Alinari Archives to Today will be accompanied by a catalog published by Mandragora.

The statements.

“It is exciting to see the art of photography return to Villa Bardini,” says Region of Tuscany President Eugenio Giani. “In what is often an extraordinary photographic setting, blending the beauty of Florence’s panorama with the elegance of the villa’s architectural structures and its garden, we will see an exhibition of extraordinary social and anthropological interest, as well as artistic. Today, more than ever, the narrative of the feminine and the way in which the woman, the artist, perceives and returns the world and herself is relevant. It will be extremely interesting to see the evolution over the decades of this perception. I therefore find this initiative of the Alinari Foundations for Photography, established by the Region of Tuscany, and Fondazione CR Firenze of great value and interest, and I thank the City of Florence for supporting this project.”

’’This exhibition dedicated to talented women,’’ say President of the Fondazione CR Firenze Luigi Salvadori and President of the Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini e Peyron Jacopo Speranza, ’’marks the happy return of photography to Villa Bardini. It is also an absolute novelty in the 30-year history of this magical terrace overlooking Florence because we hope it marks the beginning of a permanent collaboration with the City of Florence for the use of Forte di Belvedere according to the logic of ’teamwork’ that is increasingly characterizing, while strictly respecting the respective competencies, the recent path of our two Foundations. In this vein is the collaboration, started some time ago with the Alinari Foundation, and especially the desire to bring new audiences such as young people and families closer to photography with free workshops that we offer for the duration of the exhibition.’’

“It is with great pleasure,” adds Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence, “that we kick off this highly original exhibition that for the first time highlights the fundamental contribution that women photographers have made to the art of photography by proposing an organic path through the camera seen through all-female eyes, with previously unseen pieces from the past but also a look at the new generation of contemporary female photographers who are making a name for themselves thanks to digital techniques. Today we all feel like photographers: thanks to smartphones, taking a picture and retouching it is an operation within anyone’s reach. Different, however, is the role of photography, behind which lie study, tenacity, vision, resourcefulness. This exhibition restores to the craft of photography - or rather of photographers! - all its beauty and the respect we owe them. Of great value are the venues of the exhibition: Villa Bardini and Forte di Belvedere, two real pearls of the Florentine Oltrarno that offer incomparable views of the city from the left bank of the Arno. It is nice that throughout the summer they can be visited together, in a collaboration that we would like to see become closer and longer lasting.”

“This exhibition represents an important step in the short history of the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia,” stresses its President Giorgio van Straten, "first because, for the part related to our archives, all the photographs on display are vintage or prints from the original negatives; then because of the choice of a close collaboration with the Fondazione CR Firenze with which we have co-produced it and with the Municipality of Florence, which is hosting it at Forte Belvedere. Finally, the significance of this exhibition also lies in the idea of juxtaposing the heritage of the archives with the work of ten Italian female photographers of today in the ascendant phase of their careers. In fact, one of our fundamental objectives is to bring into communication and dialogue the extraordinary heritage of the past that we possess with contemporary culture, to make it a living and stimulating element, capable of arousing not only memory but also the future."

“The exclamation point in the title of the exhibition,” explain curators Emanuela Sesti and Walter Guadagnini, "is meant to emphasize the admiration for the women who, from the origins of photography up to the whole of the last century, managed to conquer a position in a world that was all male. We are talking about extraordinary figures such as Margaret Bourke-White, Diane Arbus and Lisetta Carmi, who are present with their images in the Alinari Archives along with the world-renowned images of the Wulz sisters and the hitherto unpublished ones of Edith Arnaldi, aka Rosa Rosà. A boundless heritage that in the exhibition Fotografe! is presented alongside the photos of ten contemporary artists, who have accepted the challenge, dialoguing at close range, by affinity or contrast of themes and styles, with this grandiose past."

Pictured: Federica Belli, The lens (through which we see ourselves), 2018

Florence, a major photography exhibition at Villa Bardini and Forte Belvedere

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