Rivoluzioni, Ribellioni, Cambiamenti, Utopie.
101 photobook dalla collezione della Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Roma.
Curators: Piero Cavagna and Laura Gasparini
The history of photobooks dates back to the invention of photography itself.
One of the characteristics of photobooks is the relationship between photographic image and text which, through graphic design, is enhanced by expressing a style, launching a fashion, a trend. Even its supports such as paper, inks, typefaces, format and binding, contribute to express its content while sometimes enhancing its aesthetic value.
Palazzo da Mosto hosts the most significant photobooks regarding those revolutions, protests and social and religious utopias that characterized the last century through the extraordinary volumes produced by totalitarian regimes. These were propaganda books supported by the revolutionary graphic and iconographic energy of a society, representing, at the same time, a utopian ideal to strive for.
This exhibition presents 101 photobooks from the collection of the Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna e contemporanea in Rome, built over time by Piero Cavagna. The number is meant as a tribute to the researcher Andrew Roth, who first composed a valuable list of those photobooks that made history.
Volumes of important dimensions such as Il fascio primogenito (1938) and minuscule publishing materials such as the Winterhilfswerk series (1937). There are also jems of graphics and images: some significant African revolutions, 1930s magazines and the Iranian photobooks.
There is a wide selection of extraordinary volumes, so many projects and ideas made of paper taken from the past and now here for us.
