The exhibition, through 100 images, original plates and a video documentary, tells the story of a narrator of the twentieth century from Piacenza and an innovator of the photographic language.
The exhibition, curated by Donatella Ferrari, Roberto Dassoni, Maurizio Cavalloni, promoted by the Foundation of Piacenza and Vigevano, with the patronage of the Municipality of Piacenza, in collaboration with the Museum of Photography and Visual Communication of Piacenza, presents 100 photographs, plates originals and a documentary video, made by Gianni Croce in over forty years of work, from 1921, the year in which he opened his studio in Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Piacenza, until the first half of the sixties.
Although adhering to the history of his city, Gianni Croce's images look closely at the Italian and European experiments of the twentieth century. In his shots, Croce does not return the simple and direct chronicle of reality, but uses urban backgrounds as a backdrop in which to represent reality and his own stories, interpreted by the protagonists of social life, be they aristocrats or humble people, making small passions, stories, private and collective memories.
The exhibition itinerary is divided into seven sections and embraces themes such as architecture, not captured in the bare constructive datum, but as experimentation on references to impressions, atmospheres, abstraction of reality. The main architectural works built in Piacenza between the two wars such as the Liceo Gioia by Mario Bacciocchi, the Liceo Scientifico by Luigi Moretti, the Galleria Ricci Oddi were never taken up in their entirety; the attention is rather for the architectural games or, in other cases, such as for the crypt of the Cathedral or for the refectory of the Alberoni College, for the metaphysical cleanliness recalled by an orderly series of columns.
And again the portraits, datable between the twenties and thirties of the last century in which, against the background created by the city, he poses and makes real characters act, with their precise social role. Croce does not seek reality, but rather a personal interpretation of him, almost as if the protagonists of his photographs were witnesses of an almost idyllic era where beauty represents great value. It is no coincidence that Croce intervened directly on the plates with the pencil to hide the wrinkles on the faces and make the faces timeless and soulless, leaving the task of identifying the era to the clothes alone.
Particularly interesting and curious are the sections dedicated to the Fascist Saturday, or rather the gymnastic demonstrations of the Ventennio, where the 'Olympic' poses of the boys served the regime to make the political event memorable, or again that of the Invisible City, with glimpses devoid of figures human and with strong contrasts of light and shadow, or Minimi sguardi, which tells the story of the civil and economic recovery of the 50s and 60s.
The exhibition is accompanied by video installations and a documentary on the human and professional figure of Croce made by director Roberto Dassoni with interviews with Daniele Panciroli, Angela Madesani, Paolo Barbaro, Maurizio Cavalloni, William Xerra, Paolo Dalla Noce, Rossella Villani, and others .
The catalogue, published by Maurizio Cavalloni's Croce Photographic Archive, presents texts by Donatella Ferrari and Daniele Panciroli.
Gianni Croce
Born in Lodi in 1896, after technical studies, he entered the studio of Giuseppe Marchi as a collaborator, a well-known exponent of liberty photography. In 1921, he moved to Piacenza where he opened his own photographic studio and specialized in portraits. In this period he also began his activity as a painter, meeting and frequenting other artists from Piacenza and bonding in particular with Bot, Ricchetti, Arrigoni, Cavaglieri. The activity of his studio continues until 1976 but he will continue until 1980 to collaborate with his successors Maurizio Cavalloni, now curator of the Croce Archive, and Franco Pantaleoni.
