In Genoa one hundred photographs for the 100th anniversary of Ossi di Seppia

On the centenary of the first edition of Ossi di Seppia, a collection that marked a turning point in twentieth-century Italian poetry, Palazzo Ducale in Genoa is hosting the exhibition Meriggiare pallido e assorto. Eugenio Montale: 100 Images for 100 Years of Ossi di Seppia, which can be visited from May 13 to June 29, 2025 in the spaces of the Sottoporticato. The exhibition, curated by Ilaria Bonacossa and Paolo Verri with Michela Murialdo, offers a visual journey composed of one hundred photographs, ninety-nine of which are unpublished, created by Iole Carollo, Anna Positano and Delfino Sisto Legnani, three young Italian authors entrusted with the task of translating the spirit of Montale’s work into images.

The initiative is the result of a collaboration between Fondazione Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori, Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura and Electa, with the support of Strategia Fotografia 2024, promoted by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. Underlying the project is a clear idea: to reread one of the founding works of modern opera through a contemporary visual language. The images, taken after a careful study of Montale’s texts, offer a subjective reworking of the landscapes evoked in the verses of Ossi di Seppia, relating the poetic gaze of the early 20th century to a current visual sensibility. The photographs in the exhibition interpret the symbolic and perceptual structure of the places of Montale’s imagination. Carollo, Positano and Legnani chose to move between close observation and a broad gaze on the landscape, composing a visual narrative that explores the unstable relationship between man and the natural environment. The photographed elements-plants, rocks, sea views, urban and terrestrial details-become fragments through which to read the transformation of matter and time, elements also central to the Ligurian author’s poetics. The final shot of the exhibition is an emblematic photograph: the portrait of Eugenio Montale next to the hoopoe, taken by Ugo Mulas. An image that restores the public and private face of the poet, and ideally completes the visual path of the exhibition.

The curatorial intent is to evoke, through the medium of photography, a sensibility akin to that which pervades Montale’s verses. The approach is based on a deeper correspondence between the image and the text, between light and word, between the physicality of the landscape and the existential tensions of the poem. Each shot, while autonomous, contributes to defining a sensitive map of the work, where the natural environment takes on the role of an emotional mirror, a sedimented trace of time and memory. Photography thus becomes not only a document, but a tool for analysis and, at the same time, poetic interpretation. Completing the exhibition project is a series of lectures designed to offer further keys to interpreting Montali’s text and his cultural legacy. The first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, and will feature Walter Siti, one of the most influential writers and literary critics on the Italian scene. This will be followed on Tuesday, May 13, by a dialogue between Antonio Franchini, editor and narrator, and poet Antonio Riccardi. Closing the calendar will be Enrico Testa, poet and essayist, in an appointment that aims to reflect on the forms of contemporary poetic saying in light of Montale’s legacy.

The exhibition is thus articulated as a multi-level journey: on the one hand, the visual investigation conducted by the photographers; on the other, the discussion with scholars and authors who, through lectures, seek to restore the complexity and topicality of Ossi di Seppia. Also on display are period materials, including original editions of the collection, which make it possible to follow the evolution of Montale’s poetic work until 1975, the year in which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The documentary value of these objects dialogues with contemporary images, establishing a bridge between the forms of memory and the possibilities of artistic interpretation. The decision to entrust the visual narrative to three young photographers, with different but complementary approaches, gives the exhibition an open, plural character. The layout suggests a non-linear reading of the work, but rather a fruition by analogies, evocations, outcroppings. Nature, as in Montalian verse is an active presence, an ambiguous entity that reflects and distorts human experience.

In Genoa one hundred photographs for the 100th anniversary of Ossi di Seppia

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