BACKSTAGE. Mimmo Cattarinic and the magic of the still photographer

Villa Bassi Rathgeb Museum, Abano Terme / February 9 - June 16, 2024

Many faces of great film actors and directors from the history of international cinema featured in Mimmo Cattarinich's photographs on display are in an exhibition entitled BACKSTAGE being held at Villa Bassi Rathgeb Museum in Abano Terme from 9th February-16th June 2024. Mimmo Cattarinich and the magic of the still photographer curated by Dominique Lora. Approximately 100 photographs from the immense archive of the Mimmo Cattarinich Cultural Association in Rome tell the story of Italian and international cinema from the 1960s to the present day. Film and photography are both visual languages that emerged at the same time and have always shared and exchanged narrative techniques and sources of aesthetic inspiration to create a complex network of interaction. The photographer transposes the dreams and emotions of individuals onto film, revealing how their present states and aspirations. The exhibition is divided into chronological sections narrating the different decades of Mimmo Cattarinich's work from the 1960s to the 1990s. The last room, entitled Inedita Medea (Unseen Medea), displays a collection of photographs, some of which have never been seen before, that were taken while Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Medea was being shot (1969). It provides an original twist on the off-stage relationship between the intellectual and Maria Callas, revealing the intimate and constantly moving dialogue between them and the photographer himself. BACKSTAGE is accompanied by a public programme of events, meetings, conversations and guided tours. ▲