New Generation. Contemporary Views of the Alinari Archives

New Generation. Contemporary Views of the Alinari Archives is a project by CAMERA and FAF Toscana – Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia, curated by Giangavino Pazzola and Monica Poggi, that aims to enhance the public photographic heritage by commissioning unpublished projects to four young artists. This is one of the winning projects of the “Strategia Fotografia” call, promoted by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture to support research, talent and Italian excellence in photography.

Starting from the Alinari archives, Matteo de Mayda, Leonardo Magrelli, Giovanna Petrocchi and Silvia Rosi explore the theme of archives as fundamental stories that must be questioned and expanded. By comparing historical and contemporary images, the exhibition analyzes the contemporary role of collections and artistic practices developed from public or private archives.

The exhibition mixes the already present unpublished materials and those from the FAF collection, recounting the history of photography through objects such as daguerreotypes, plates and albums.
The four artists’ works will become part of the FAF collection and will be exhibited in Turin and Florence before the acquisition. They will dialogue with historical photographs and objects from the archive, highlighting the relationship between past, present and future.

The initiative is accompanied by a catalogue with copies of all the works on display and essays by the curators.