The Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid recently inaugurated an exhibition of Gabriele Basilico’s photographs on the theme of architecture and the city. The photographs are part of the collection of the MAXXI museum in Rome.
A vast selection of photographs by Gabriele Basilico on the theme of “architecture and the city” from the collections of Maxxi museum in Rome is on exhibit at the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid starting on May 26. The well-known photographer’s shots take visitors on a voyage through a number of cities in Italy and other countries, grasping the most profound structure of the city, an invitation to a sensitive, meditated view of these places through photography.
The voyage starts in Rome, where Gabriele Basilico’s lens documents the city’s architectural stratification with ancient Roman monuments set in an urban fabric which is currently the focus of major urban planning projects. Basilico’s images focus on projects implemented between the thirties and the sixties, including the Foro Italico, the Olympic Village and the suburbs, and going on to look at recent projects such as the “Cantiere d'autore” series of photographs about the construction of the Maxxi Museum designed by Zaha Hadid.
The next stop is Milan, where the photographer was born and grew up, and then a series of places which all have one thing in common, the presence of the sea: Genoa, Naples, Palermo and the strait of Messina. Lastly, Beirut, where Gabriele Basilico’s photos, taken in 1991 after fifteen years of war, are a reflection on the role of photography, giving form to a city’s historic memory.
(Agnese Bifulco)
Title: Gabriele Basilico, architecture and the city. Photographs from the MAXXI collections
Dates: May 26 – September 6 2016
curated by Margherita Guccione with Simona Antonacci
Location: Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid, Spain
Images courtesy of Fondazione Maxxi
www.fondazionemaxxi.it
http://www.iicmadrid.esteri.it/
