The Banco di Napoli Foundation supports and hosts, from 4 to 23 October, the photographic exhibition by Giuseppe Leone: “Journey to Campania”, organized by Mario Esposito as part of the artistic residencies of the “Penisola Sorrentina Arturo Esposito” ® Award.
With Leonardo Sciascia, Vincenzo Consolo and Gesualdo Bufalino, the master of black and white recounted the beauties and contradictions of Sicily without ever falling into stereotype. Now the internationally renowned photographer presents the exclusive work he dedicated to Campania, which has merged into the elegant volume: “Viaggio in Campania” (Plumelia editions, 2022) with texts by Mario Casillo, Prestifilippo Concept and Peppe Leone (artistic director of the project). The eponymous exhibition is a real photographic journey through landscapes, hidden places, famous cultural monuments of the Campania region, in the footsteps of the ancient Grand Tour that saw the German writer Goethe, coming from Sicily, among the major protagonists in Naples. Equally from Trinacria came, twice (in 2019 and 2021), this 85-year-old photographer who spanned the entire twentieth century and whose works have developed at 360 °, with publications on landscape, architecture, popular festivals, anthropology, fashion. Leone began by illustrating Antonino Uccello’s book La civilization of wood in Sicily (Cavallotto, 1973). Among the best known publications: La Pietra Lived with texts by Mario Giorgianni and Rosario Assunto (Sellerio, 1978); The County of Modica with text by Leonardo Sciascia (Electa, 1983); The Naked Island with text by Gesualdo Bufalino (Bompiani, 1988); The Baroque in Sicily with text by Vincenzo Consolo (Bompiani, 1991); Sicily Theater of the world with text by Vincenzo Consolo and Cesare De Seta (Nuova Eri, 1990); A half-century-long journey with text by Antonino Buttitta (Kalós, 2008); Story of a friendship (2015 Postcart Edition), Sicily a country in pose (Plumelia Edizioni 2018), Lunch break (Plumelia Edizioni, 2022).
The photographic contributions – which on the same dates of the physical exhibition will also create an immersive digital experience on the international portal cercarte.it – tell not only the direct experiences, a sort of Carnet de Voyage, but also those relating to the analysis of cultural complexity through the tools offered by black and white photography, understood as a language and not simply as a technique. Looking at the photographs of the exhibition, also sponsored by the Campania Region and the Metropolitan City of Naples, the visitor will be able to be captivated by the beauty of places such as Sorrento, Pompeii, Naples, Paestum, Benevento, Buonalbergo, Teggiano and Procida, the Italian capital island of culture.
The Ragusa photographer will be present at the vernissage scheduled at the Neapolitan Foundation in Via dei Tribunali on 4 October at 6.00 pm. The inaugural event will be attended by Giuseppina Scognamiglio (professor of theater literature at the Federico II University), Enza Alfano (journalist and writer) and the President of the Banco di Napoli Foundation, Francesco Caia, who declares: “The Banco di Napoli Foundation has the various missions the territory, its riches, the spread of culture. For this reason, having financed one of the projects of the “Sorrentine Peninsula-Arturo Esposito Award”, providing a scholarship for cultural creativity and audiovisual training, has fully embraced the characteristics of the Institute and the objectives it sets itself. The presence of the Foundation in these projects is also intended to be a message of hope to be transmitted to the outside world; a message that includes young people and art, to whom we will always give space as an Institute because we are fully convinced that only through ‘knowledge’ can a rebirth of the territory take place ”.
The “Viaggio in Campania” exhibition, after the Neapolitan stage at the Banco di Napoli Foundation, will also be hosted in Sicily, in Ragusa, to sign a cultural twinning in the name of the South and Mediterranean culture.
