Franco Guerzoni
In nessun luogo. Da nessuna parte - Viaggio con Luigi Ghirri
October 10th to November 9th 2014
Impluvium, Triennale di Milano

The exhibition "In nessun luogo. Da nessuna parte - Viaggio con Luigi Ghirri" (Random travels / Vagabonding with Luigi Ghirri), for the very first time presents an original and unknown aspect of the work of the two Italian artists Franco Guerzoni (Modena, 1948) and Luigi Ghirri, (Scandiano, 1943-Roncocesi, 1992) to the public.
Curated by Davide Ferri and the result of the collaboration between the Triennale di Milano, Skira Editore and Nicoletta Rusconi Art Projects.

The exhibition arises parallel to the book by Franco Guerzoni "In nessun luogo. Da nessuna parte - Viaggio con Luigi Ghirri" curated by Giulio Bizzarri and with an introduction by Carlo Arturo Quintavalle, published by Skira and, like the book, it is the story of a friendship and of the collaboration between two artists in the years of their formation and their vagabonding travels in the countryside around Modena in the 60ies and 70ies. Though, the exhibition project acts more as a counterpart to the book than as its summary, revealing its autonomy and its own narrative structure.

For almost a decade Ghirri and Guerzoni maintained a constant dialogue, sharing the enthusiasm and the doubts of the beginning, of their first experiments and attempts. The two shared the same territory: a landscape of barnyards, abandoned houses, ruins, industrial buildings and construction sites they loved to photograph.

A vast documentation of hundreds of unpublished pictures taken by Luigi Ghirri for Guerzoni is what is left from these explorations. These photos represented the starting point, the material base for Franco Guerzoni’s works. During those years Guerzoni used only some of these photos, and all the others, never forgotten and treasured in his personal archive, are now revealed and shown in this exhibition.

  • Franco Guerzoni, Studio per un pavimento imbottito (1970). Photo Luigi Ghirri. Courtesy: artist's archive