From June 13 to November 1, 2026, the Spazio Antonioni in Ferrara will host the exhibition *Il monte analogo. Michelangelo Antonioni and Luigi Ghirri, promoted by the Fondazione Ferrara Arte and the Department of Culture, Tourism, and Relations with UNESCO of the City of Ferrara, in collaboration with the Fondazione Luigi Ghirri and La Virreina Centre de la Imatge in Barcelona. The exhibition, curated by Frederic Montornés, arrives in Ferrara following its presentation at the Catalan venue and offers a unique comparison between two central figures of 20th-century Italian culture.
The title is inspired by *Il monte analogo*(The Analogous Mountain), René Daumal’s unfinished novel published in 1952, which recounts the journey of an expedition in search of a mysterious and unreachable mountain. This reference serves as a metaphor for artistic exploration and the striving toward the invisible—elements that unite the work of Michelangelo Antonioni (Ferrara, 1912 – Rome, 2007) and Luigi Ghirri (Scandiano, 1943 – Roncocesi, 1992) .
The exhibition is conceived with the aim of drawing parallels between the Ferrara-born director’s paintings andthe Emilian master’s photographic work, highlighting remarkable affinities in their artistic language and vision. At the heart of the exhibition is the dialogue between the *Montagne incantate* series—created by Antonioni in the 1970s and 1980s through the photographic enlargement of small paintings on paper—and the early photographs taken by Ghirri in the 1970s during his travels. Although they worked in different fields, Antonioni and Ghirri share a profound reflection on landscape and the perception of space.
Their images seem to stretch time and invite the viewer to observe slowly, transforming reality into a perceptual experience. Seemingly ordinary landscapes become enigmatic territories, capable of evoking emotions, memories, and questions about the relationship between humanity and the world. Through this exploration, the exhibition aims to offer a journey that traverses real and imaginary visions, inviting the public to reflect on the way we view and interpret the landscape.
The exhibition is part of the activities of Spazio Antonioni, established to promote the artistic and cultural legacy of the great director from Ferrara. The encounter with Luigi Ghirri’s work further broadens this perspective, offering an original reinterpretation of the work of two leading figures who, each in their own language, have profoundly influenced the contemporary visual imagination.
“It is,” writes curator Frederic Montornés, “a catalog of analogies, approximations, and shared gestures—serene and imperceptible—characteristic of the way both artists reflect on that part of existence that flows on the margins of our gaze, expresses itself in silence, and seeks to fill some of its voids. A way of being, of existing, and of acting in the world of which this exhibition reveals only the tip of an iceberg. Or the summit of a mountain. Or, better yet, the representation of the summit of an idea of a mountain.”
“Antonioni and Ghirri resemble one another without having sought each other out: when faced with the landscape, they share the same rhythm—one of silence and anticipation, of images that hold time rather than consume it,” commented Marco Gulinelli, the city councilor for culture. “Pairing *The Enchanted Mountains* with Ghirri’s photographs is not a game of allusions; it is a way to enter the minds of two artists who viewed the world with the same freedom. In Ferrara, we are fortunate to preserve a legacy like Antonioni’s—a heritage that the city has chosen not to leave in the archives but to make available to everyone. The Spazio Antonioni was created precisely for this reason: to highlight that legacy, bring it to life, place it in dialogue with other perspectives and stories, and present it to the public in ever-new forms. An exhibition like this one, which brings to Ferrara an exhibition that has already been well-received in Barcelona, is the best way to demonstrate that this legacy never ceases to speak to us and surprise us.”
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| Ferrara, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Luigi Ghirri in a dialogue on the theme of the real and imaginary landscape |
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