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Mario Giacomelli
The photographer and the artist

20.05__03.08.2025

Curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi e Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli

 

Exhibition promoted by Rome the Capital City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo

Produced and organised by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo in conjunction with the Archivio Giacomelli

 

Immagine: Mario Giacomelli, Io non ho mani che mi accarezzino il volto, 1961-63 © Archivio Mario Giacomelli

Mario Giacomelli The photographer and the artist20 May__3 August 2025
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“Photography is an alchemy: its materials and processes are symbolic and the artist brings himself, his own existential journey, into play”.

To mark Mario Giacomelli’s first centenary, the Archivio Giacomelli has promoted a series of events designed to celebrate the artistic and cultural legacy of one of Italian photography’s greatest masters. The high point in the celebrations is a major exhibition that is due to be held simultaneously at the Palazzo Esposizioni in Rome and the Palazzo Reale in Milan, offering visitors two complementary experiences exploring the many different aspects of Giacomelli’s multi-faceted work.

Curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli, the exhibition will be showcasing a vast selection from the master’s photographic output as a whole, highlighting his astonishing ability to cross over and to cross-contaminate different artistic disciplines. Each exhibition will consist of roughly 300 original prints, many of which are unpublished and have never been shown in public before now. In Rome, the focus will be on the relationship between Giacomelli’s work and the contemporary visual arts, while the exhibition in Milan will be exploring Giacomelli’s deep bond with poetry, revealing how his research was interwoven with the lyrical world, succeeding in transforming images into a kind of poetic narrative.

The exhibition at the Palazzo Espozioni in Rome, entitled Mario Giacomelli. The photographer and the artist, will accompany visitors on a journey through a variety of theme-based rooms, proposing a series of dialogues between the work of five great masters of contemporary photography and art, Afro Basaldella and Alberto Burri, Jannis Kounellis, Enzo Cucchi, Roger Ballen, and a number of Mario Giacomelli’s photographic series.

A room at the very heart of the exhibition will be given over entirely to the celebrated series Io non ho mani che mi accarezzino il volto [I have no hands caressing my face] (1961-1963), which made Mario Giacomelli’s name on the international scene in the early 1960s. Designed in the shape of an installation, the room will convey the energy and the circular movement that breathes life into the series, enhancing its performative dimension. The pictures of young seminarists, suspended between playfulness and spirituality, are pure visual poetry and are still eminently capable today of moving and involving the observer with their timeless intensity.

To mark his first centenary

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Palazzo Reale, Milan. 22.05__07.09.2025

World Press Photo Exhibition 2025 / Mario Giacomelli. The photographer and the artist / Albert Watson

 
Until May 13th, 2025

Monday closed
Tuesday   10:00am__8:00pm
Wednesday   10:00am__8:00pm
Thursday 10:00am__8:00pm
Friday 10:00am__8:00pm
Saturday 10:00am__8:00pm
Sunday 10:00am__8:00pm

From May 14th, 2025

Monday 10:00am__08:00pm
Tuesday   10:00am__08:00pm
Wednesday   10:00am__08:00pm
Thursday 10:00am__10:30pm
Friday 10:00am__10:30pm
Saturday 10:00am__10:30pm
Sunday 10:00am__08:00pm

Entrance is allowed up to one hour before closing

 
Until May 19th, 2025
(only World Press Photo)
Full price € 10,00
Reduced price € 8,00
Children aged 7 to 18 € 6,00
 
From May 20th, 2025
Full price € 12,50
Reduced price € 10,00
Children aged 7 to 18 € 6,00
 

  • young people under 26
  • senior citizens over 65
  • teachers in activity on presentation of the institute of origin, excluding university professors
  • forces of law and order and the military on producing an ID
  • groups with reservation required (min 10 max 25 people)
  • Conventions

  • children under 7
  • 1 escort for each group booked
  • 1 companion for every 10 students
  • otherwise skillfull and accompanying person 
  • invalid and person accompanying
  • tourist guides
  • tour leadres
  • interpreters accompanying the guides
  • ICOM and ICROM card holders
  • PER Card Members Palazzo Esposizioni


Cinema in mostra
With the booking confirmation email for the Cinema you will be able to visit the exhibitions with a reduced ticket

Groups and schools
From Tuesday to Friday schools € 4,00 per student.
From Tuesday to Friday groups € 10,00 per person. Saturday Sunday and holidays groups € 12,50 per person.
Reservation required for groups € 30,00 email: tour@coopculture.it
Compulsory booking schools € 20,00 (min 10 max 25 people) email: edu@coopculture.it
Guided tours for groups and schools with reservation required
Groups € 100,00 (minimum 10 — maximum 25 people) email: edu@coopculture.it
Schools € 80,00 (minimum 10 — maximum 25 students) email: edu@coopculture.it

Press reduced price
€ 7,00
Journalists with regular license of the National Order (professionals, pratictioners, journalists). For journalists requiring accreditment for service reasons admission is free and you need to send a request to


Member's guest
Until May 19th € 7,00 - From May 20th € 9,00 

Students, researchers and undergraduates
On Fridays and Saturdays, after 5:00 pm until the box office closes € 4,00

First Wednesday of the month
Free entry for under 30 from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm