Pasolini was probably the most uncompromising, acute and uncomfortable intellectual of the second half of the twentieth century in Italy. As a writer, journalist, columnist, activist and director, he has unfolded his thoughts in a multitude of works and documents that make him one of the key figures of the national and international cultural debate of the second post-war period.

Close to the centenary of his birth (Bologna, 1922), the exhibition in Palazzo Ducale aims to bring attention back to the figure of Pier Paolo Pasolini and his main personal, cultural and professional experiences through the medium of photography. Starting from the objective observation that Pasolini was one of the most photographed public figures of his time, the exhibition project in question wants to build a photographic exhibition path to get to know or deepen the knowledge of his life and his professional experience. A cultural initiative that was born, despite the awareness of the immense research work present and associated with every area of its commitment, from the desire to continue to nurture, especially in the younger generations, a comparison with Pasolini's intellectual legacy.

The choice of the photographic medium to explore Pasolini's work and thought is not accidental. His relationship with the photographic medium was ambivalent. If on the one hand he wrote “nothing like making a film forces us to look at things”, his relationship with motionless images was different, as his words testify: “it is enough to take a look at the photographs. I never observe them more than a moment. In an instant I see everything ”.

And yet, paradoxically, throughout his life Pier Paolo Pasolini has always offered great willingness to be photographed, even in private moments of his life. The enormous amount of photographic material dedicated to his figure is proof of this.

These shots thus make it possible to build, through a careful selection, a path in the main experiences that have characterized his work and in the context of his private sphere. At the same time, the photographic medium represents, today more than ever, the most direct way to create a relationship with the visitor.

Suazes with Palazzo Ducale, and with the collaboration of the Pier Paolo Pasolini Study Center of Casarsa della Delezia, has organized an important path that brings together about 260 pieces of vintage photographs and documents and which is organized into sections, each of which groups a corpus of photographs dedicated to the specific theme. There are over fifty photographers and archives involved in this project. To name a few are Nino Best, Italo Zannier, Elisabetta Catalano, Letizia Battaglia, Massimo Listri, Federico Garolla, Elio Ciol, Sandro Becchetti, Farabola Archives, Cecilia Mangini, Carlo Bavagnoli, Salvatore Tomarchio, Mario Dondero and many others.