“Autoritratto per Lee Friedlander”, 1971 © Eredi Ugo Mulas. Tutti i diritti riservati. Courtesy Archivio Ugo Mulas, Milano – Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano / Napoli
On 29 March, Le Stanze della Fotografia – a multi-year cultural project staged in partnership between the Giorgio Cini Foundation and Marsilio Arte – will be inaugurated on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore. It constitutes the continuation of the project begun in 2012 at the Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice, in the belief that photography – one of the most intriguing artistic languages of contemporary life – can continue to have a ‘home’ in Venice.
The new centre will be set up in the spaces of the Ex-Convitto of the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, which have been specifically earmarked for the exhibition and future cultural projects of Le Stanze della Fotografia, having been redeveloped by the Pedron / La Tegola Architecture Studio, with the invaluable collaboration of Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Conceived as a truly international hub for research into and the enhancement of photography and image culture, Le Stanze della Fotografia will stage workshops, meetings and seminars with both national and international photographers. With this in mind, various partnerships will be developed with key realities from the world of photography, such as the Magnum Photos Agency, the Jeu de Paume Centre in Paris, the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie and the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne to name but a few. Further initiatives and activities will be held in collaboration with the Intesa Sanpaolo Banking Foundation through a programme of events staged together with the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin.
During these early years, the centre will host a programme of exhibitions dedicated to the great national and international masters of photography, new talents and schools of thought. To inaugurate the project, the exhibition Ugo Mulas. L’operazione fotografica will be held, curated by Denis Curti with the Ugo Mulas Archive and its director, Alberto Salvadori (29 March – 6 August 2023), which – through the presentation of 250 images, including fifty unpublished photos, documents, books, publications and films – will retrace the great photographer’s entire creative development.