OPEN ARCHIVES – Seventh edition

For the seventh edition of Open Archives, Fondazione Gian Paolo Barbieri opens its historical archive to reveal the artistic heritage that combines testimonies of our culture and history, from the 1960s to the present day.

Sustainability is the focus of this year’s edition: the protection of the environment, territory, and landscape, and the relationship with society in photography. Discussing and promoting the broad theme of sustainability today means not only working collectively to ensure an eco-sustainable world for future generations, but also, and especially, perpetuating urgent environmental, social, and economic policies that allow for a progressive improvement in quality of life for everyone, in every part of the planet.

The seventh edition of Open Archives intends to reflect on the role of photography within this change, to enable quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, reduce inequalities, and thus promote responsible consumption and sustainable communities, with increasingly clean and accessible energy to fight ongoing climate change. The world of photography, in all its forms, cannot escape these objectives through its language and its ability to investigate deeply and give ample visibility to new challenges, to raise awareness among more people on these subjects, and to remind us that some processes have already had a long journey—from gender equality to welfare to environmental issues. Gian Paolo Barbieri’s archive will structure the path within its spaces, trying to bring attention back to the fundamental elements that have marked the history of Gian Paolo Barbieri’s photography, while also underlining the narrative transformations that have occurred within the history of our culture.