THE ITALIAN SEASON IN ZAKOPANE
May 15 – October 31, 2010
The Museum of the Zakopane Style at Koliba villa
ul. Kościeliska 18, Zakopane
Looking at the Alps is not just the title of this exhibition; it is what every Piedmontese does every time he raises his eyes and sees, almost magically, a backdrop of peaks and valleys on the horizon. These are the mountains that surround the Piedmont region, that characterise it, and have become part of its name.
The exhibition invites the viewer to discover, but also to reflect on, the recent history of this mountainous region: from the 1870s to the 1940s. All seen through a limited number of highly evocative images from the collections of the Museo Nazionale della Montagna in Turin.
Forty digital reprints have been selected from the original photographs conserved in the Photographic Library of the Museum's Documentation Centre. They are powerfully evocative shots that speak for themselves, recounting stories, situations and changes. With this exhibition we hope to make known a little of this magic of our past. At the same time, we would like to encourage you to discover these same places today.
The National Mountain Museum in Turin has long been interested and involved with the world of photography. From its very earliest years, towards the end of the nineteenth century, it has maintained a steady collaboration with the documents collected by members of the CAI (the Italian Alpine Club). During the final years of the nineteenth century, mountaineers climbed the main peaks of the Alps and, at the same time, recorded their exploits; later, it was the turn of mountains farther away, those outside Europe. The camera faithfully accompanied all these ascents. From glass plates to film, to slides, to digital images a long journey that is accurately recorded in the Photographic Library of the Museum’s Documentation Centre. Here, the collections conserved range from the original prints of the great photographers of the 1850s to those of contemporary ‘artists’, seeking to document the history of mountain photography.