Milan, at Palazzo Morando 140 works tell the story of Carlo Orsi's photography

From October 31, 2024 to February 2, 2025 Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine in Milan hosts the exhibition Miracoli a Milano. Carlo Orsi photographer. The exhibition is curated by Giangiacomo Schiavi and Giorgio Terruzzi with advice from Silvana Beretta and organized by Vertigo Syndrome in collaboration with the Carlo Orsi Archive and the City of Milan. The exhibition pays homage to the versatile photographer and journalist Carlo Orsi (Milan, 1941-2021) from a professional career that began in postwar Italy. On display are 140 black-and-white printed works, almost all of them vintage and from Orsi’s personal archive.

The exhibition is divided into four sections: the first dedicated to Milan is titled MILAN - The Soul Exposed and offers asurvey of the city that lasted sixty years. Orsi scoured its streets composing a tale in images such as L’ombra del Pirellone from 1961; Un mondo nuovo from 2015 or Metropolitana in bianco e nero from 1965. It is dated 1997 the conception of Città, a magazine designed to explore the energies of Milan with the contribution of great photographers such as Francesco Cito, Ferdinando Scianna, Francesco Zizola and Elliott Erwitt. The second section RITRATTI - Fine Heads and Tough Faces presents portraits of artists, designers, fashion designers and actors who marked the second half of the 20th century. Artists such as Lucio Fontana, Valerio Adami, Emilio Tadini, Jannis Kounellis, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and Mario Schifano have posed for Carlo Orsi; singers such as Luciano Pavarotti, Gino Paoli, Mina, and Loredana Bertè; film and entertainment personalities Mariangela Melato, Ornella Muti, Dario Argento, Cochi and Renato, Dario Fo; political figures such as Sandro Pertini; and sports personalities such as Michael Schumacher, Marco Simoncelli, Valentino Rossi. The third section FASHION AND ADVERTISING-Give Me the Idea, on the other hand, concerns work done for the world of fashion and advertising for some major brands such as Catellani&Smith, American System, Swatch, Philip Morris, and Ducati. Models and models are active bearers of a necessary naturalness. Anticonformism and humility corresponding to his way of life “Macché artista, I am a simple craftsman.” The fourth is instead reserved for reportage. Through REPORTAGE - Places of the Heart Orsi deals with suffering and hope by accompanying the doctors, nurses and volunteers of Interplast, a humanitarian association active in disadvantaged places around the world. Two books document five missions organized in Tibet, China, Uganda, Bangladesh and Bolivia. It is a return to reportage many years after the first photographic trips organized in Italy, Spain, the United States, African deserts and Europe.

In addition, between November 2024 and January 2025, five collateral meetings to the exhibition dedicated to the relationship between Milan and music, literature, journalism, comedy, and social issues are planned at Palazzo Morando.

Notes on the artist

Carlo Orsi was born in Milan on March 8, 1941. Art and artists fueled his curiosity and inspiration. He began photographing as a reporter for Corriere della Sera, became assistant to Ugo Mulas. In the 1960s he made reportages in Italy and abroad for several periodicals and worked for fashion, collaborating with several Italian and foreign magazines. In the 1970s he devoted himself to advertising, for which he would continue to work for a long time. His first solo exhibition dates back to 1984, with installation by Mario Botta. Dated 1965 and 2015 are two books on Milan, with texts by Dino Buzzati and Aldo Nove. The volume Extasi on the fall of the Berlin Wall is from 1999; Faithful. People around the World from 2004; Jannis Kounellis single act from 2006; and The Light of the Earth from 2007. Meanwhile, he accompanies the work of artist Arnaldo Pomodoro by producing several publications. In 1997 he founded with his wife Silvana Beretta and friends Emilio Tadini, Guido Vergani, Gianfranco Pardi, and Giorgio Terruzzi the magazine Città, to tell Milan through the eyes of great photographers.

Milan, at Palazzo Morando 140 works tell the story of Carlo Orsi's photography

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