Life through the looks, faces, gestures, bodies and actions of ordinary people who lived, worked, loved, prayed in the Cuneo countryside of the seventies, immortalized by the photographic and poetic eye of Michele Pellegrino . About thirty shots dedicated to women and men by the Cuneo-based photographer, born in 1934 and originally from Chiusa Pesio, are at the center of the exhibition "Michele Pellegrino. People" at the Don Quixote Lattes Space in Turin (via della Rocca 37b), organized by the Foundation Bottari Lattes in collaboration with the CRC Foundation as part of the second edition of Fo.To. Photographers in Turin.
Stories of rural life in a countryside that is emptying, moments of religious reflection, work and moments of rest, the experience of everyday life, days of celebration and ceremonies, but also delicate scenes of femininity. Portraits of flatland sharecroppers, mountaineers from the Langhe hills, cloistered monks and nuns, newly married couples or brides ready to say yes, waiters with their trays and workers who reach the city, young bodies of carefree women among nature. A lot of life in this selection of shots that well represent the essence of Pellegrino's poetics, which from reality becomes symbolic: representing stories that are both realistic and fantastic, documentary and allegorical, spiritual and at times witty, to invite us to reflect on human life.
The exhibition stems from the success of the large exhibition " Michele Pellegrino. A photographic parable" , organized in Cuneo last summer by the CRC Foundation and curated by Enzo Biffi Gentili, dedicated to Pellegrino's fifty-year career. The initiative was made possible by the donation of the entire archive by the photographer to the Foundation within the Donare project, which since 2017 has collected and enhanced important collections and works by artists from the province of Cuneo.
The exhibition in Turin is accompanied by "Stories" , a special monograph on the entire work of Pellegrino published by Skira for the Cuneo exhibition in 2018 and enriched by critical texts by Enzo Biffi Gentili and Walter Guadagnini.