Luigi Ghirri e Gianni Celati. Verso la foce

The MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna presents the exhibition Luigi Ghirri e Gianni Celati. Verso la foce in the Project Room, the winning project of the Strategia Fotografia 2025 call. Opening on Thursday, June 25, 2026 at 6:00 pm.

The exhibition, curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Giulia Pezzoli, documents the intellectual and creative partnership born from the collaboration between Luigi Ghirri (Scandiano, January 5, 1943 - Roncocesi, February 14, 1992), a photographer among the leading figures of the international contemporary scene, and Gianni Celati (Sondrio, January 10, 1937 - Brighton, January 3, 2022), critic, translator, writer and filmmaker.

At the centre of the exhibition is a large body of photographs taken by Luigi Ghirri between 1989 and 1991 during the scouting and production of Strada Provinciale delle Anime, the first feature film directed by Gianni Celati, representing the cinematic development of the exploration of the Po Valley landscape that began with the literary success of Verso la foce (1989). During these three years of shared work, Ghirri’s camera accompanied and documented the filmmaker’s research, capturing the genesis of the film through images revealing a new and intense focus on the human figure.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a dedicated publication exploring the poetics of vision shared by both authors through essays by Corrado Confalonieri, Gabriele Gimmelli and Marco Sironi.

The initiative is developed in partnership with the Fondazione Luigi Ghirri, with special thanks to the MARV | Museo d’Arte Rubini Vesin / Rete Museale Marche Nord for its support.
The project is supported by Strategia Fotografia 2025, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

The exhibition will be open to visitors until October 4, 2026.