PERMANENT EXHIBITION | SERIES

The Museum of Contemporary Photography, starting from June 5th 2017, presents a selection of photographic series by important Italian and foreign artists from its collection, which contains over two million images. Over the years the most significant works of the Museum’s holdings have been exhibited in numerous collective and monographic shows at Villa Ghirlanda and the Triennale di Milano, as well as other prestigious Italian venues.

The photographs, often presented individually to provide a more comprehensive overview of the collections, have enjoyed a great response from the public and have been the subject of intense educational activities such as guided tours, workshops and numerous courses. From this experience, the Museum has selected for the occasion several projects consisting of a series of images, never exhibited in their entirety. It thus becomes possible to enjoy some of the best-loved photographs from the collection on the one hand, and on the other to better understand the many visual and conceptual approaches through which photographers articulate their thought and develop their artistic enquiry.

The series on display, realized over a span of time from the 1960s to the early years of the new millennium, are very different in terms of theme, genre, visual language, technique, format and support. The exhibition features works organized by major themes. The first floor gallery hosts series about the body – from social reportage to Body Art – along with other series closer to abstraction and various forms of experimentation. The upstairs gallery presents landscape-related projects, understood both in the narrow sense of territory and the broader sense of social environment, which also represent a symbolic space of visual enquiry and linguistic hybridization.

Works on display:

Olivo Barbieri, Flippers, 1977-1978;
Marina Ballo Charmet, Vignate, 1994;
Günter Brus, Ana, I, 1964
Ezio Colanzi, Spazio vuoto, 1998-2001;
Mario Cresci, Un po’ di terra in cielo un po’ di cielo in terra, 1973;
Gilbert Fastenaekens, Nocturne, 1980-1982;
Luigi Gariglio, 2 a.m. A Family Business Society, Finlandia 2006;
Mario Giacomelli, Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi, 1981-1983;
Paul Graham, Untitled, 1998;
Tancredi Mangano, In urbe, 2001;
Floris Neusüss, Fotogramm, 1965-1969;
Alessandra Spranzi, Il Velo, 2007;
Hans Van der Meer, European fields. The Landscape of Lower League Football, 1996-2005.