Parma, Brescia, Trieste: three cities "invaded" by Art.

There's also an exhibition dedicated to a great artist who has already entered the history of 20th-century art: Piero Gilardi (Turin 1942-2023), Master of Arte Povera and an ecologist ahead of his time. The noble floor of Palazzo Pigorini, an 18th-century building adorned with mythological scenes by Francesco Scaramuzza, hosts the exhibition "Survival," bringing together about twenty works by the artist, including large-scale pieces. These works also highlight the concept of "interactivity" through some pieces from the 2000s, such as "Bretone Rock" (2001), "Panthoswall" (2003), and "The Perfect Storm" (2017). These works are part of Gilardi's research path that, starting from the 1980s, led the artist to use technology to allow the viewer to actively participate by interacting with the artistic object, aiming to evoke a response towards environmental defense and the survival of the planet.

Trieste, from painting to photography, a true immersion in the visual arts

Great art has been the protagonist in Trieste for several weeks now, thanks to the exhibitions hosted at the Revoltella Museum. The works of Vincent van Gogh and Antonio Ligabue will remain on display until June 30th, thanks to the two exhibitions currently set up in the splendid palace that houses the museum. These two artists share the uniqueness of their styles and the ability to look at nature and humanity with eyes different from all their contemporaries, so much so that they were truly understood and appreciated only many years after their passing.

The highlight of the exhibition is certainly dedicated to the Dutch painter, featuring a precious section dedicated to his drawings, where Van Gogh demonstrates all his mastery in this technique that he considered of primary importance. Additionally, there are splendid paintings, including a debut, made possible by the contemporary exhibition, featuring for the first time the portraits of Monsieur and Madame Ginoux.

Vincent van Gogh Ritratto di uomo (Ritratto di Joseph-Michel Ginoux) Ottobre-dicembre 1888 Olio su tela 65,3x54,4 cm © Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands / L'Arlesiana (da Gauguin) 1890 Olio su tela, 60×50 cm Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Foto Schiavinotto

The offering of the Revoltella Museum would already be more than worth the trip, but these days Trieste also offers an unmissable opportunity for lovers of artistic and documentary photography. Throughout the month of April, the entire city becomes a stage for an extraordinary open-air exhibition, thanks to the twelfth edition of "Le vie delle Foto" (The Streets of Photos). Sixty-two photographers present forty unique perspectives and forty stories to discover, spread across forty different venues throughout the city. Enthusiasts of this art thus have the opportunity to explore the streets of Trieste in search of these exhibitions, for a unique immersive experience.

Lastly, another significant event in photography takes place at the Salone degli Incanti. This is the exhibition "Amazônia" by Sebastião Salgado, featuring over 200 photographs documenting a project that lasted seven years. During this time, the Master captured the forests, rivers, mountains, and the people who inhabit them, recording the immense power of nature in those places while simultaneously capturing their fragility. With "Amazônia," Salgado renews the tradition of great humanistic photography, showing us, through documentation and interpretation, that in history there are no solitary dreams.

Brescia Photo Festival and The Macchiaioli

"Witnesses" is the theme chosen for the seventh edition of the Brescia Photography Festival, a term that emphasizes the photographers' ability to document the present, facilitating the interpretation of history through the narrative conveyed by images: Franco Fontana, Maurizio Galimberti, Gabriele Micalizzi, Massimo Sestini, Federico Garolla, Chiara Samugheo, Carlo Orsi, Francesco Cito, Maria Vittoria Backhaus, Silvia Camporesi, and many others have been dedicated temporary exhibitions, all of which are unprecedented.

The focal point of the Festival is the Museum of Santa Giulia, a UNESCO site, which hosts the important monographic exhibition dedicated to Franco Fontana and the exhibition project "Maurizio Galimberti. Brescia, Piazza Loggia 1974," along with the Mo.Ca. - Center for New Cultures, which currently hosts the retrospective dedicated to Federico Garolla (1925-2012), one of the masters of Italian photography, along with "Inside the Cinema," the personal exhibition of Chiara Samugheo (1935-2022), a recently deceased artist who revolutionized celebrity photography with her innovative approach, giving birth to cinematic reportage.

Maurizio Galimberti, Brescia Piazza Loggia 1974

For painting enthusiasts, it's worth mentioning that until June 9th, 2024, Brescia also hosts a major exhibition dedicated to the Macchiaioli, at Palazzo Martinengo. This exhibition presents over 100 masterpieces by Fattori, Lega, Signorini, Cabianca, Borrani, Abbati, and others, largely from private collections, typically inaccessible, and from important museum institutions such as the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, the Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo da Vinci" in Milan, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the Matteucci Institute in Viareggio, and the CR Firenze Foundation. Among the exhibited masterpieces are "The Shirt Seamstresses" by Borrani, "The Hay Harvest in Maremma" by Fattori, "The Betrothed" by Lega, and "Pascoli in Castiglioncello" by Signorini.

It's worth noting that just like Impressionism, the term Macchiaioli, coined more than a decade earlier, arose from derogatory criticism. In 1862, a reviewer for the Gazzetta del Popolo in Florence referred to those painters who, around 1855, had initiated a renewal in anti-academic Italian painting in a realist sense. Both movements represented a break from the past, with solutions that went in different directions. Certainly, the French movement was more successful, partly due to the role of American collectors. However, the Florentine movement retains the temporal primacy, leaving behind absolute masterpieces of painting that in recent years have regained the deserved space and success, also in terms of exhibitions.

Odoardo Borrani, Le cucitrici di camicie rosse, 1863. Collezione-privata

Links for further information:

• PARMA 360 Festival della creatività contemporanea
• Humanoid
• Vincent van Gogh 
• Antonio Ligabue
• Le vie delle Foto
• Franco Fontana, Colore 
• Maurizio Galimberti. Brescia, Piazza Loggia 1974
• I Macchiaioli