Omaggio a Gabriele BasilicoBeirut 1991 – 2011Opening June 5, 2021

OMAGGIO A BASILICO

EXHIBITION PERIOD6.07 – 9.25, 2021OPENINGJUNE 5, 2021 BY RESERVATION ONLY

VENUESTUDIO LA CITTÀ,LUNGADIGE GALTAROSSA 2137133 VERONA

OPENING HOURSMONDAY 2 P.M. – 6 P.M.TUESDAY/FRIDAY 9 A.M. – 1 P.M.AND 2 P.M. – 6 P.M.SATURDAY 9 A.M. – 1 P.M.

GUIDED TOURS BY RESERVATION

PER ULTERIORIINFORMAZIONI EIMMAGINI, SCRIVERE AMARTA FRACCAROLO -UFFICIO STAMPA,STUDIO LA CITTÀ | +39045597549 |UFFICIOSTAMPA@STUDIOLACITTA IT

BEIRUT 1991 (91A6-413), detail

From June 5 and for the whole summer period, Studio laCittà will be devoting a tribute to the famousphotographer Gabriele Basilico by reserving some of thegallery rooms to his work about the city of Beirut and tothe projection of the film Beyrouth Centre Ville, 1991 byTanino Musso, the reporter for the RAI who followedBasilico during his photographic mission in the citydestroyed by the long civil war.

The show is an integral part of a wider programmestarted last April with the group show Today I would liketo be a Tree and which culminated with the show I am oneacquainted with the night. The latter, organised togetherwith the Tanit gallery in Beirut, which was badly damagedin August 2020 after the terrible explosion in the area ofthe port, is hosted in the main rooms of Studio la Città atthe same time as the homage to Basilico.

In collaboration with Archivio Gabriele Basilico

Gabriele Basilico was invited to Beirut for the first timein 1991 by the Hariri Foundation together with aninternational group of photographers: RaymondDepardon, Fouad Elkoury, René Burri, Josef Koudelka,and Robert Frank. The mission’s aim was to documentthe city’s “centre ville”, devastated by a civil war thatlasted over fifteen years.

On 13 April 1975 some armed men in a car shot at agroup of people, among them the leader of thePhalangists, Pierre Gameyal, who was present for theconsecration of a church. Some hours later Gemeyel’sChristian Phalangists killed thirty Palestinians. This wasthe beginning of the Lebanese civil war, that officiallyclosed only on 13 October 1990. It is estimated that120,000 people died in the war, and about half a millionLebanese were obliged to abandon their homes(source: Internazionale).

Basilico was to return to Beirut another three times: in2003, 2008, and 2011. In 2003 the architecturalmagazine Domus, edited by Stefano Boeri, proposedthat he record the reconstruction of the city throughurban views corresponding to the photos shot in 1991,in order to underline the changes in comparison withthe past.In 2008 he returned for the opening of a show by himat the Planet Discovery Center and, for this occasion hecontinued to record the reconstruction of the city, thistime in a broader way and without a specific request.In 2011 it was once again the Hariri Foundation thatinvolved him in the documentation of the rebuilt Beirut,together with Fouad Elkoury (who was also part of the1991 mission), Klavdij Sluban, and Robert Polidori.

On show is a selection of works created in 1991and a single photo from 2011, as well as thedocumentary film where Tanino Musso retracesthe first photographic mission through the eyesof Basilico.

BEYROUTH CENTRE VILLE, 1991

UN FILM DE TANINO MUSSOPOUR GABRIELE BASILICO, 22’

Un film de Tanino Musso pour GabrieleBasilico, 22’In 1991 the Hariri foundation asked theLebanese writer Dominique Eddé tocoordinate a photographic mission toBeirut with the aim of recording the citycentre, destroyed by a war lastingfifteen years and before itsreconstruction.

So Eddé invited an international groupof artists, Gabriele Basilico, RaymondDepardon, Fouad Elkoury, René Burri,Josef Koudelka, and Robert Frank, alldifferent for experience andbackground.

Tanino Musso, the reporter for the RAI,followed Basilico. As he rememberstoday, “The images of this film were, infact, my travel notes. I shot Basilico,Burri, and Franck at work, the meetingsof Eddé and Elkoury, the movements,the people. Dominique Eddé thenasked me if it were possible toassemble them together and makethem into a short film. I had shot somefive hours and I tried to assemblethem”.

Since 1995, “Beyrouth Centre Ville”,shot with a Sony 8 mm. Handicamvideo camera in 1991, is kept in thearchives of the Maison Européenne dela Photographie, Paris, and in thefollowing years has been acquired byvarious international institutions.

For further information and images, please contact:

Marta Fraccarolo - Ufficio Stampa, Studio la Città | +39 045597549 | ufficiostampa@studiolacitta.it