“I didn't want to create PHOTOGRAPHS, but MAPS, PLANS that at the same time were meant to be photographs.” (Luigi Ghirri, 1943–1992), who is counted among the pioneers of European color photography. The exhibition at Museum Folkwang from 4 May – 22 July, 2018, is the first comprehensive museum presentation of Ghirri's photographs outside of his home country of Italy.
“I'm interested in ephemeral architectures, the provincial world, objects which are generally associated with bad taste, but never were to me; objects filled with desires, dreams, and collective memories... windows, mirrors, stars, palm trees, atlases, globes, books, museums and people...”
In his oeuvre, the artist, who had trained as a surveyor, focused on landscapes, still lives and architectural themes – mostly from his home region of Emilia Romagna. He addressed the relationship humans have with their natural and artificial surroundings with perspicacity and a hint of irony. He thus not only reflected the cultural changes of his day, but also the shifts in modes of depiction and representation that were part and parcel of these.
The exhibition looks at the phase when Ghirri was at his photographically most productive, the 1970s, and highlights his striving for a renewal in photography. The period exemplifies his exceptionally conceptual approach to the medium, while still allowing Ghirri the thinker and essayist to have a say. Ghirri's small sized photographs, for the most part printed on matte paper, often resemble film sequences and are characterized by subdued colors. Ghirri had an inimitable sense of color, space and light, as well as an almost unprecedented knack of humorously visualizing the “commonplace” and making it accessible to a new level of perception.
Curated by James Lingwood, the exhibition at Museum Folkwang takes its cue from the large monographic show held in Parma in 1979 and arranged to specifications by Luigi Ghirri. Around 300 photographs, subdivided into 15 work groups, reveal the broad range of themes Ghirri addressed in the 1970s.
The exhibition was organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, in collaboration with Museum Folkwang, Essen, and Jeu de Paume, Paris. In both museums in Madrid and Paris, the exhibition will be on display afterward. Appearing also at MACK in May is an accompanying book.
'The Map and the Territory' examines Ghirri's work from the 1970s based on 14 series with motifs as diverse as suburban houses and gardens, modern advertising images, the illusory world of amusement parks or even detailed photos of maps out of an atlas. Alongside his influential work as a photographer, Ghirri was also an influential thinker and author. This publication contains Ghirri's key essays from the 1970s, as well as critical reflections on his work, written by Jacopo Benci and Maria Antonella Pelizzari and the curator of the exhibition, James Lingwood.