Metropoli: the exhibition

Gabriele Basilico, Metropoli: the exhibition at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni | January 25 – April 13, 2020 – Dedicated to one of the major protagonists of Italian and international photography, the exhibition focuses on the theme of the city with 270 images dated from the 1970s to the 2000s , some of which were exhibited for the first time on this occasion.

The city has always been at the center of Gabriele Basilico’s investigations and interests (Milan 1944-2013). The theme of the anthropized landscape, the development and the historical stratifications of the cities, the margins and the suburbs in continuous transformation have always been the main engine of his research.

The exhibition compares works created in the numerous cities photographed, including Beirut (with the images from 1991 and 2011), Milan, Rome, Palermo, Naples, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Lisbon, Montecarlo, Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, London, Boston, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, San Francisco, New York, Shanghai, combined according to analogies and differences, assonances and dissonances, different points of view in the way of interpreting and relating the built space.

The exhibition
The exhibition itinerary is divided into five major chapters: “Milan. Portraits of factories 1978-1980 “, the first important project realized by Basilico; the “Sections of the Italian landscape”, a survey on our country divided into six itineraries carried out in 1996 in collaboration with Stefano Boeri and presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale; “Beirut”, two photographic campaigns exhibited together for the first time, realized in 1991 in black and white and in 2011 in color, the first at the end of a long war lasting over fifteen years, the second to reconstruct it; “The cities of the world”, a journey through time and places from Palermo, Bari, Naples, Genoa and Milan to Istanbul, Jerusalem, Shanghai, Moscow, New York, Rio de Janeiro and many others; finally “Rome”,

In addition to the works on display, a large illustrated biography is proposed which tells through short texts and images the artistic and professional path of Basilico (several times in fact the two spheres crossed) and three videos: the first created by Tanino Musso in 1991 in Beirut and reassembled by Giacomo Traldi who has also reworked an interview by director Amos Gitai in 2012 dedicated to Rome and Piranesi. The third video, “About Sections of the Italian Landscape”, is an interview with Stefano Boeri made by Marina Spada in 2002.

Location: Palazzo delle Esposizioni
When: January 25 – April 13, 2020