It is there, in fact, that the exhibition “The sense of places” will be set up, which includes the exhibition of shots made ad hoc in Figline and Incisa Valdarno, in the last year, by the TerraProject collective, together with those on Figline signed (and already exhibited in the past) by two greats of photography, Paolo Monti (1980) and Gianni Berengo Gardin (2011), re-proposed in a selection curated by the Arno Photographic Circle, which keeps them in the municipal historical archive.
The exhibition will remain open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 1 pm and from 3 pm to 7 pm (closed on December 25th and January 1st).
The exhibition, curated by the same authors, is a production of the Territorial Culture and Marketing Service of the Municipality of Figline and Incisa Valdarno and includes the texts of the Valdarno writer Vanni Santoni, both in “extra content” format of the captions on display and in the printed catalog , curated by Giovanna Calvenzi, one of the greatest Italian photo editors.
The project and collateral events
Promoted by the Municipality and realized together with TerraProject, Arno Photographic Circle and Foto d’Arte Lab, with the support of BCC Valdarno Fiorentino, the project aims to tell the territory and its community, to preserve its collective memory. How? Combining the shots commissioned in 1980 and 2011 by the then municipal administrations of Figline Valdarno with those “updated” and made, between 2021 and 2022, by TerraProject. Not just postcard photos, but a reportage on the territory, to show points of interest and productive activities but, above all, the people who live there, work there, live it and make it unique. An opportunity, therefore, not only to update the Municipal Historical Archive, ideally continuing the photographic campaigns that began with Monti and continued with Berengo Gardin at the time of the former Municipality of Figline Valdarno, but also to show how and how much the territory has changed over time, starting from the union with the former Municipality of Incisa in Val d’Arno which, contrary to the exhibitions of Monti and Berengo Gardin, is now included in the exhibition.
The TerraProject shots will be placed on the second floor of Palazzo Pretorio; the first, on the other hand, will feature a selection of the images immortalized by the two great masters and curated by the Arno Photographic Circle.
In addition to the exhibition, the project includes:
guided tours, reserved for primary and lower secondary schools (for info: cultura@comunefiv.it);
the possibility for groups (minimum number: 10 people) with a guide, to request the extraordinary opening of the exhibition. At least one week’s notice is required;
three evenings to discover, together with the Arno Photographic Circle, the history of Figline and the municipal photographic historical archive (Saturday 5 November at 5 pm and Saturday 17 December at 5 pm), as well as an in-depth study on landscape photography (Saturday 12 November at 5 pm );
two portrait workshops to learn together with Foto d’Arte Lab, using a camera (own or borrowed, for the occasion, by the members of the association) or a smartphone, to create a photographic portrait, from the first approach with the protagonist of the shot until the printing phase (Saturday 26 and Saturday 3 December, 5 pm);
guided tours of the exhibition, organized by the four photographers who make up the Terraproject collective, who will accompany visitors, narrating their work in documenting the area and illustrating their methodological and stylistic choices (Saturday 19 November and Saturday 10 December at 5pm)
a final thematic conference, on the occasion of the finissage of the exhibition (Saturday 14 January, 5 pm).
The detailed program of collateral events is already available on www.fiv-eventi.it
The authors of the new shots: the TerraProject collective
TerraProject Photographers is a documentary photography collective founded in Florence in 2006 by Michele Borzoni, Simone Donati, Pietro Paolini and Rocco Rorandelli. Among the first photographic collectives born in our country, TerraProject soon became an important platform for comparison and promotion for its members, who over the years have also developed an original “collective writing” methodology, with defined group projects. by a refined stylistic uniformity. The authors have always focused their research on social and environmental issues, both globally and nationally. In Italy they have built over time an important archive of documentation of the territory, thanks to important public and private commissions. The collective’s works are regularly published on the pages of the main Italian and international magazines and have been exhibited in galleries, festivals and prestigious international museums, including Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), MAXXI (Rome), MAST Foundation (Bologna), MACRO (Rome), Benaki Museum (Athens), Palazzo Ducale (Genoa), UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), Katzen Arts Center (Washington), National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), Les Rencontres d’Arles (Arles), Cortona on the Move Festival (Cortona), Festival of Ethical Photography (Lodi) and the European Parliament (Brussels).
TerraProject has published numerous monographic and collective books and their works are preserved in important public and private collections.
The members of the collective have received prestigious international awards, including the World Press Photo (2010 and 2012), Canon Award (2010), Fund for Investigative Journalism (2011), Pesaresi Award for contemporary photography (2013), Graziadei Award ( 2014), Celeste Prize-Streamers (2016), Landskrona photobook dummy award (2018) and the Gabriele Basilico Award (2020).
Mayor Mugnai’s comment on the exhibition
Figline and Incisa. From 29 October to 15 January the Praetorium becomes “The Photography Palace”