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OPENING

FONDAZIONE GIAN PAOLO BARBIERI

23 - 25 February, 2018
Fondazione Gian Paolo Barbieri

“One could list a thousand good reasons to establish a cultural foundation, and most of these would be linked to crucial issues such as the preservation and memory of our heritage.

Anyhow, it is always a philanthropic act, which discloses new horizons and, fascinatingly, it becomes a starting point for new stimulating challenges.

Based on the words of the people who daily work within the Fondazione Gian Paolo Barbieri, the foundation appears as a plurality of diverse intentions.

-Instructive. Thanks to an archive housing more than a million shots, it tells about photographic technique, creativity, and very personal ideas.

-Educational. It preserves a varied corpus, which testifies to how society has changed throughout more than sixty year and in which it is also possible to notice the development of art and culture in all fields.

-Eclectic. It is a source of information that goes beyond photography, in the spirit of sharing points of view, with the purpose of supporting any kind of creative research.

-Forward-looking. It transcends its original function, making use of memory devoid of a nostalgic abandonment and employing its own history as a source of inspiration.

-Constructive. It fosters curiosity and desire to learn through activities that are always different, becoming so a source of reflection and deepening.

 

The mission of Fondazione GPB is to look forth to the future and welcome the next generations. Far from recycling the traditional museum approach that pivots on the mantra “once things were done this way”, Fondazione GBP aims to speak the lively language of a spontaneous didactics, giving anyone with eyes and curiosity the opportunity to read – or re-interpret – extraordinary stories from yesterday; and the foundation fulfils such aim by evoking characters who are today wrapped in myth, revealing anecdotes, bearing witness to times, tastes and thoughts, which are now part of history.

But, above all, by showing the structure of a modus pensandi, a rigorous and successful method, which is not only and merely a constructive utilitarianism, but also a process of artistic creation.

Fondazione Gian Paolo Barbieri intends to go well beyond storytelling: it provides the context in which stories transform into a solid base of support for the creative dream, paving the path for further interpretations and developments confirming how looking to the past is the essential prerequisite in order to step forward progress.”

– Carlo Ducci