At the beginning of the Sixties, Bruno Barbey, a photography student in Switzerland, escapes the boredom of classes by crossing over to Italy and practicing field photography.

With his Volkswagen Beetle, he explores the peninsula in its entirety, documenting a society in full transformation, still affected by the war but already invigorated by new hopes, with the North heading towards the metropolitan dream and the South struggling in reconstruction. Bruno Barbey constructs a true visual fresco of a transforming Italy, suspended between modernity and tradition, between economic development and social tensions. His deeply empathetic and never intrusive approach manages to capture the essence of Italians in their theatricality, sense of community, resilience, and joy of living.

Through his portraits of beggars, aristocrats, nuns, street children, he delivers one of the most vivid reportages of Italy in the Sixties. 'The Italians' by Bruno Barbey remains today a precious document, capable of making us relive, with new eyes, a recent past and reflect on the cultural identity of our country. The exhibition features about a hundred black and white photographs selected by the author himself shortly before his passing.