Culture
Intesa Sanpaolo's new exhibition venue: Paolo Pellegrin and more
From 17 May 2022, the Publifoto Archives and Paolo Pellegrin’s photography exhibition are on display in Piazza San Carlo
The doors of the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin are now open to the public. It is the fourth Intesa Sanpaolo exhibition venue, which goes on to join those in Milan, Naples and Vicenza.
The new museum in Piazza San Carlo is a space where photography and video art express their aesthetic value by taking on topics that are crucial to history and modern life.
Discovering the marvels of nature with Paolo Pellegrin
Fagradalsfjall volcano, Reykjanes peninsula. Iceland, 2021 Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum Photos
The exhibition, entitled “La fragile meraviglia. Un viaggio nella natura che cambia" (The fragile wonder. A journey in changing nature) by Paolo Pellegrin, curated by Walter Guadagnini with the support of Mario Calabresi, is the result of the first commission of the Gallerie d’Italia, which asked the author to create a collection of images dedicated to one of the central topics of our time, the relationship between humans and nature.
Paolo Pellegrin, one of the international masters of modern photography, travelled for over a year in search of images that would capture nature’s greatness: from Iceland and Greenland, to Sicily, Trentino Alto-Adige, Namibia and Costa Rica. His photos focus on the presence of the four elements of nature: earth, water, air and fire. Capturing an iceberg, glacier, or trees burning in Australia (a unique series that began before the commission) means speaking of humans and their actions, accentuating their relationship with the space in which they live and, simultaneously, with the primitive part of themselves.
The new Gallerie d’Italia exhibition venue for the Publifoto Archives
The exhibit, entitled “Dalla guerra alla luna 1945–1969. Sguardi dall’Archivio Publifoto Intesa Sanpaolo” (From the War to the Moon 1945-1969. Glimpses from the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archive), displays a selection from the Publifoto Archives, which contains around 7 million photographs of events, people and places taken from the beginning of the 1930s to the 1990s. Acquired by Intesa Sanpaolo, today the collection is an essential part of Intesa Sanpaolo’s historic archive. Curated by Giovanna Calvenzi and Aldo Grasso, the selection of images is an extraordinary journey throughout Italy, which was in the process of rebirth after the horrors of World War II, including the Marshall Plan and the accompanying aid from America for reconstruction, the economic boom of the ’60s, the advent of television, the widespread diffusion of cars, up to the moon landing.
© Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archives
A quarter of a century that completely changed our society. Shacks on the outskirts of large cities, the first instances of public housing, industrial development, the construction of essential infrastructure like the Autostrada del Sole motorway, and the diffusion of mass consumption, with the introduction of the first domestic appliances in Italian homes. The images of factory work are alternated with shots of beauty pageants, sporting events, singing performances, the construction of bridges and skyscrapers, and the unveiling of the underground in Milan. Tragedies like the Polesine and Florence floods, or the Vajont landslide are not overlooked.
Permanent collection of Piedmontese art
On the main floor of the palace hosting the Gallerie d’Italia, the museum itinerary curated by Fernando Mazzocca, Alessandro Morandotti and Gelsomina Spione unfolds through nine large paintings owned by the bank and made in the latter half of the seventeenth century as decor for the historic Oratorio della Compagnia di San Paolo, now destroyed, as well as through paintings, sculptures, tapestries and furnishings from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century.
The project was designed by architect Michele De Lucchi in a palace whose history is bound to the layout of the city of Turin
The new Intesa Sanpaolo museum in the capital of Piedmont represents the completion of a unique project in the international scene and confirms the determination of the bank to contribute to the creation of social and cultural value in Italy.
Michele De Lucchi, one of Italy’s most well-known architects, was entrusted with the task of creating the new exhibition space. De Lucchi defined the initiative as “a project for our own Renaissance”. It is located in Palazzo Turinetti, which has been housing the administrative offices of the Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino since 1963, and today hosts the registered office of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group. Palazzo Turinetti’s history is bound to the large project undertaken to lend a new urban and architectural layout to Turin when the city became the capital after duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy moved the official capital of the Savoy state from Chambéry to Turin.
We are not changing the layout of the windows or the flow of the porticoes. Instead, we’re building a monumental staircase that, while not reaching the main floor of Renaissance-era buildings, goes down below the planet’s crust, to places that are as extraordinary and evocative as those found on the upper levels.
Intesa Sanpaolo customers will receive a special €5 entry price to visit the museum and the temporary exhibitions when they present to the ticket office their Intesa Sanpaolo card, their INTESA SANPAOLO MOBILE app, or by requesting a document from their local branch proving their status as a customer. Additionally, from 17 May until 22 May, entry to the museum will be free of charge for everyone by booking in advance on www.gallerieditalia.com.
Last updated 10 August 2022
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