In Milan, Maurizio Galimberti's photo exhibition on the history of the 20th century

From March 1 to May 1, 2022, the Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini in Milan is hosting Uno sguardo sulla nostra storia, an exhibition featuring 30 large-format photographs by Maurizio Galimberti (Como, 1956), one of the best-known and most celebrated Italian authors on the Italian and international art scene.

Galimberti, Fuji Ambassador since 2017, has made a name for himself through his mosaic compositions, created with instant cameras, in which, the subject-whether a person or a portion of a city-is broken down into numerous shots, often corresponding to different perspectives, and recomposed into a multifaceted image. In this review, curated by Denis Curti, Maurizio Galimberti, famous for his portraits to celebrities from the worlds of film, sports, culture and society, confronts the history of the 20th century, tracing it through its protagonists, such as John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and those crucial episodes that have characterized its unfolding, from the Vietnam War, to the Twin towers bombing, to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“With this new project,” says Denis Curti, “!our Instant Artist takes a look at some of the icons of our recent history and, through the poetics of the ready-made, restores new strength to those images so well known and, perhaps, all too radicalized. Seen all together, these mosaics immediately appear as a sampling of memorable and widely historicized events and which here, thanks to Galimberti’s intervention of reinterpretation, are transformed into true contemporary relics. Galimberti seems to want to enter those stories with his whole self and offers us new eyes, dismayed gazes capable of making us reflect.”

“In this path,” stresses Nadia Righi, director of the Diocesan Museum of Milan, “the history of the twentieth century is seen through highly dramatic episodes, with images that in many cases have remained imprinted in each of us, but also through characters, faces and gestures that tell of the possibility of a positive look at reality.”

“The project,” Maurizio Galimberti recalls , “was born from confrontation with Paolo Ludovici, who produced the entire work and lent all the works on display, with whom I share a sincere friendship and a design complicity capable of renewing itself every day.”

Using his particular technique, Galimberti explores the Short Century, giving new life and meaning to shots taken by other authors. The exhibition consists of sections portraying the major players of the twentieth century, such as Pope John Paul II, or Nelson Mandela in his sympathetic fist-crossing with Muhammad Ali, or Nikita Khrushchev as he slams his own shoe on the podium of theUnited Nations Assembly in New York, or Mother Teresa of Calcutta in the tender gesture of hugging a child.

And it is precisely through the faces of the youngest, almost as if they were refugees of dreams, in urgent need of a future that seems arduous if not impossible to face, that Galimberti prefers to recount the tragedies of the 20th century.

Here then are the dramatic images of the children of Auschwitz, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Vietnam, Srebrenica, or even the little migrants dying on a beach or separated from their parents on the U.S. -Mexico border, or seeking safety in the arms of soldiers.

Galimberti does not forget to document the scourge of terrorism, such as the 1972 Munich Olympics bombing or the attack on the Twin Towers or the Italian soldiers in Nassiria.

Accompanying the exhibition are two Skira volumes, with texts by Denis Curti, Gianni Canova, Matteo Nucci and Maurizio Rebuzzini.

Maurizio Galimberti has been active on the international art scene for more than 30 years, known worldwide not only for the characteristic poetics of his projects, but also for his portraits of stars such as Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp, and Umberto Eco, and for having produced publications and site-specific exhibitions in New York, Paris, Milan, Rome, and Venice. He has been a worldwide testimonial for Polaroid International and is now considered by critics to be an instant artist rather than exclusively a photographer.

For all information, you can visit the official website of Chiostro Sant’Eustorgio.

Pictured: Maurizio Galimberti, Martin Luther King (1963). Ph. credit: Bob Fitch photography Archive Department of Special collections, Stanford University Libraries.

In Milan, Maurizio Galimberti's photo exhibition on the history of the 20th century

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.