Parma, a tribute to Mario Giacomelli with an exhibition featuring 70 vintage works

From April 12 to May 25, 2025, Galleria San Ludovico in Parma hosts a tribute to one of the greatest Italian photographers of the 20th century. On the occasion of the 9th edition of PARMA 360 Festival, the event presents the exhibition Questo ricordo lo vorrei raccontare, an installation that brings together the last series of photographs made by Mario Giacomelli (Senigallia, August 1, 1925 - 2000), one of the most influential figures in contemporary photography. Curated by Chiara Canali and Camilla Mineo, the exhibition is an opportunity to discover the intimate and profound connection Giacomelli had with his art. The title of the exhibition, This memory I would like to tell, refers to an intimate and personal reflection that the artist undertook in the last years of his life, a meditation on memory, photography and interiority. The series, composed in 2000, takes the form of a kind of artistic testament, where the photographer, who had just been discharged from a serious operation, decided to recount his ghosts through powerfully evocative images. The exhibition, which includes about 70 vintage works and more than 200 print specimens, documents Giacomelli’s creative process, from the selection of photographs to handwritten notes, revealing to the public a previously unseen side of the artist’s work. The photographs on display, taken between 1997 and 2000, are the result of a profound inner journey, in which Giacomelli transforms the landscape of Senigalli - his beloved territory - into a dreamlike stage populated by symbols, masks and shadows. The images appear as simulacra of a transfigured world, in which the absence of human figures, apart from the author, is charged with ritual and spiritual significance.

Giacomelli’s approach in this period of his career broke away from traditional realism, embracing an abstract, symbolic and highly evocative language. Although far from convention, Giacomelli’s work remains deeply connected to reality while reflecting a world that becomes an expression of his inner experience. His photographs are not simply snapshots of fleeting moments, but rather performative moments in which the artist enters and leaves himself, like a purification ritual. The artist himself describes the work as a process of entering within himself and exiting purified, where the face and presence of the author are an integral part of the narrative.

In a 2000 interview, the artist points out, “It is not easy to explain the presence of my person in the last photographs, it is as if I entered inside myself and came out purified. I don’t know how to say -- a participating in a symbolic way. So in this work I also put my face; this is like the story of the knitting that is reversed: it is the reverse of my interiority, I go inside and come out. However, with this image I come out of myself as washed ... [...] purified because I experienced the joy of being present and having the memory of it.”

The photographs in this exhibition offer a powerful vision of performance photography with a strong emotional and psychological component. Each image is like a fragment of a dream, a tale that defies traditional definition and understanding, inviting the viewer to enter a world of personal memories and visions that transcend time and space. The performative element and the materiality of photography are, in fact, at the heart of all Giacomelli’s production, but it is with the last series that Giacomelli achieves a degree of profound introspection, resulting in a visual narrative that transcends mere documentation. This work stands as the photographic testament of the artist, who used the camera as a means to explore his interiority, as a tool to stage his ghosts, his memories and his most intimate emotions.

The exhibition is not limited to a visual experience, but is also enriched by a 1997 video showing Giacomelli at work, a never-before-seen record of the artist’s creative process. Together with the proofs, final prints and handwritten notes, the video provides a fascinating insight into his work behind the camera, revealing the most intimate folds of his research. The exhibition thus becomes a journey through the mind and poetics of a great master of photography, capable of using photography as a language that is both universal and personal.

The volume accompanying the exhibition, Mario Giacomelli. This Memory I’d Like to Tell, published by Skinnerboox and edited by Milo Montelli and Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli, further enriches the exhibition, offering insight into the genesis of the series and the artist’s creative vision. This book, never before published in a complete and organic form, provides an additional tool for understanding the singularity of Giacomelli’s language, which continues to fascinate and stimulate new reflections on photography as a form of performance art and inner narrative. The exhibition is part of the centenary celebrations of Mario Giacomelli’s birth and marks an important moment in the program of events celebrating his career. Following the success of the exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Cinisello Balsamo, the Parma 360 Festival offers the Parma public an opportunity to learn more about an artist who left an indelible mark on the panorama of world photography.

In parallel, other retrospective exhibitions in Rome and Milan, to be held in the second half of the year, will give a complete and articulate view of his work, exploring on the one hand the metamorphosis of matter and on the other the relationship between image and word. In Senigallia, meanwhile, the exhibition Nella camera oscura di Giacomelli (In Giacomelli’s Darkroom) continues, a journey into the artist’s creative world, allowing visitors to explore the various stages of his photographic research. The exhibition in Parma, produced in collaboration with the Mario Giacomelli Archive and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, is supported by a wide network of public and private partners, including the City of Parma, the Emilia-Romagna Region and the Cariparma Foundation. An event for lovers of photography, contemporary art and visual culture.

Parma, a tribute to Mario Giacomelli with an exhibition featuring 70 vintage works

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