In Milan CoviDiaries: photographs, screenings and a calendar chronicle two years of the pandemic

Photographs, screenings and a calendar of meetings: it begins on January 29 CoviDiaries, a multimedia project of the photojournalistic agency Parallelozero, which chronicles two years of the pandemic, inviting reflection on the major issues that have emerged in these 24 months. It all begins on March 9, 2020-a date we will not forget. Italy officially enters lockdown. It will change everything forever. The photojournalists of the Parallelozero agency kept a timely and capillary chronicle of an exhausted country that with tenacity was able to react. Thus was born CoviDiaries, a collective projectthat documents, through photography, the indelible marks of the pandemic on each of us. A narrative through images protracted over time, which has become an opportunity to reflect on the things of the world and their complexity.

Organized by Fabbrica del Vapore, Associazione Fotografica and Parallelozero agency, in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan and with the support of Fondazione di Comunità Milano and Vivisol - Sol Group, the CoviDiaries exhibition opens free to the public from Jan. 29 to Feb. 25, at the halls of Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan. An exhibition that, after being shown in 2020 in Bergamo on the occasion of a special edition of Fotografica, Festival of Photography, and in 2021 at the International Book Fair in Turin, arrives after two years of work also in the Lombard capital. Voices, faces and events emblematic of the Italian pandemic in a series ofprojections and about 60 photos on display, selected on the different narrative lines of these months: health emergency, social impact, economic consequences, return to normality and then restart and vaccination campaign, through all the transformations that the pandemic has brought to our society and our lives. The enjoyment of the exhibition is accompanied by the songs of Quarantine Scenario by Casino Royale.

CoviDiaries thematic panels: four meetings and think tanks

CoviDiaries is first and foremost a photo exhibition and screenings, but also a series of thematic meetings on the major issues that, born and changed as the pandemic evolved, await urgent insights and answers. In the four scheduled meetings (starting Feb. 3 every Thursday at 6 p.m.) leading experts and representatives from different fields (researchers, scientists, innovators, entrepreneurs, philosophers, urban planners, sociologists, virologists, economists, and policy makers) will discuss the present in an open and forward-looking debate on the crucial issues imposed by the pandemic: new poverty and welfare, sociality and youth, culture and entertainment, local and global health, and labor and enterprise.

“Photography does not ask for permission and leaves no room for excuses,” stresses Daniela Sonzogni, President of the Photographic Association. “It is a universal language that documents and makes us reflect on the need to take on new responsibilities. Fotografica - Festival of Photography of Bergamo was born to narrate the contemporary, the changing world, the remote places of the earth but also the small or big stories of communities. The prestigious collaboration with Parallelozero originates from the desire to tell together an epochal event, to witness our lives during a terrible period, which showed the fragility of our balances but also the strength to react and look forward. Here then, photography helps us not to forget. It becomes the starting point of a collective reflection, necessary to make sense and to seize the opportunity for change.”

“Right from the start as Parallelozero we felt the need to make a sort of memory box, to be opened when all this would end,” adds Sergio Ramazzotti, journalist, photographer and co-founder of Parallelozero. “It was with this in mind that we created CoviDiaries. Today, as we approach the second anniversary of the start of the pandemic, although we are not yet out of the tunnel, it seems like the right time to open that box, and see what it contains. It is a symbolic act, which we hope will keep alive or bring back memories of a collective experience during which we discovered ourselves capable of things we did not suspect, and which made us proud to be citizens of our country. And it is also a way to pay tribute and, we hope, make sense of the too many victims of the virus.”

“Our Foundation,” says Filippo Petrolati, Director of Community Foundation Milanosostiene, “with conviction the CoviDiaries initiative that makes available to the community, free of charge, a photographic heritage that documents two years of the pandemic and, at the same time, recounts the sacrifice of health personnel, the solidarity of volunteers and young people, and the bewilderment of the second and third waves. Above all, it emblematically highlights the impact on the most fragile groups of citizens. The exhibition looks to the future, to possible recovery; in fact, it accompanies the exhibition with moments of discussion, encouraging collective reflection around major themes such as poverty, work, culture, health that are decisive in (re)designing the community in an evolutionary dimension. A meeting opportunity open to citizens that fully interprets the commitment of our Foundation.”

The exhibition remains open daily with free admission from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Info and all updates on talks and related events: https://www.covidiaries.it/

Photo: Audience members attend a performance at Théâtre La Comédie on the MSC Grandiosa cruise ship.

In Milan CoviDiaries: photographs, screenings and a calendar chronicle two years of the pandemic

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