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University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2021 Place and identity in Italian photography through a study of the town of Lugo Nostri, Luca http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/16815 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who con- sults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. 1 2 PLACE AND IDENTITY IN ITALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY THROUGH A STUDY OF THE TOWN OF LUGO by LUCA NOSTRI A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Art, Design and Architecture January 2021 3 4 Aknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude to the following people: Luca Mugellesi, Livio and Paolo Manganelli, Gianmarco Magnani and the Fo- toteca Manfrediana in Faenza, Saskia Lewis, Clare Chandler, Cathy Johns, Maria Luisa Barbieri, Anna, Marco, Cristina e Ada Montanari, Giovanni Barberini, Daniele Serafini, Patrizia Randi, Claudio Nostri, Olivo Barbieri, Daria Menozzi, Antonello Frongia, Roberta Valtorta, Martin Cole, Alessandro Dandini De Sylva, Artemisia e Giulia Visani, Giovanni e Anna Zaffagnini, Cesare Ballardini. ASimi, special William thanks Guerrieri, to Marcello Sue Barr,Galvani, John Francesco Spinks, Graciela Neri, Guido Iturbide, Guidi, Marco Andrea Delogu, David Farrell, Giacomo Casadio, Anna Giulia Gallegati, Giovanni Barberini, for their ideas and friendship. To David Chandler, Jem Southam and Liz Wells for their guidance, generosity, and patience. To my parents Nadia e Piero and my grandparents Teresa and Anselmo. To my brother Filippo and his wife Anna. And to Francesca. 5 Author’s Declaration At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Doctoral College Quality Sub-Committee. This thesis has been proofread by a third party; no factual changes or addi- tions or amendments to the argument were made as a result of this process. A copy of the thesis prior to proofreading will be made available to the exam- iners upon request. Work submitted for this research degree at the University of Plymouth has not formed part of any other degree either at the University of Plymouth or at another establishment. The following external institutions were visited for consultation purposes: Fototeca Biblioteca Panizzi - Reggio Emilia | © Eredi Ghirri Linea di Confine for Contemporary Photography Archive - Rubiera (RE), Italy Archivio Storico - Comune di Lugo - Lugo (RA), Italy Lugo Land Archive - Lugo (RA), Italy Museum of Peasant Art, Scuderie Villa Ortolani - Voltana (RA), Italy Fototeca Manfrediana - Faenza (RA), Italy Biblioteca Comunale Piancastelli - - Fusignano Cinisello Balsamo (RA), Italy Milano, Italy Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea 6 Publications (or public presentation of creative research outputs): Offi- Publishedcine artistiche essay: in Romagna‘L’esperienza 1900-2017 del luogo’ (The Experience of Place), in , curated by Franco Bertoni (Imola: DOC Centro di Documentazione delle Arti Moderne e Contemporanee in Romagna, 2018). - Curatorial work: exhibition ‘Paolo Guerra fotografo. Un archivio ritrovato’ (Pao lo Guerra, photographer. An archive rediscovered), curated by Giacomo Casadio andArtistic Luca work: Nostri), Anselmo Pescherie della Rocca, Lugo (RA), March 30 - April 28, 2019.- , photographs by Luca Nostri, group show ‘Maxxi Col - lection. The New Display’, 16 October 2019 - 26 January 2020, curated by Bar tolomeoArtistic work: Pietromarchi, Quattro cortiliMaxxi Museum, Rome, 2019. - (Four Courtyards), Project Room, Linea di Con fineDecember per la Fotografia2020. Contemporanea - Rubiera (RE), Italy, 17 October - 06 Presentations at conferences: The Paolo Guerra PromoterArchive and of, the and Culture Speaker of Post-Warat, the Research Italian DayPhotography entitled , organised by David Chandler and Luca Nostri, Photography Research Group, Plymouth University, November 16, 2016. Word count of main body of thesis: 50900 Signed Date 20/01/2021 7 8 Place and identity in Italian photography through a study of the town of Lugo Abstract This research is framed by the specific context of Italian photography since the late 1970s, which has defined its own aesthetic and cultural identity in relation to the ideaViaggio of place. in Italia The conceived definitive and reference curated point by photographer for this context Lui is- the group project - gi Ghirri and presented in 1984, when an exhibition of three hundredViaggio photo graphsin Italia was brought held intogether Bari and a generationa catalogue of for photographers the project was who published. were creating a new cultural atmosphere around photography in Italy: they shared a new and intense focus on the landscape, turning their gaze to the poetics of everyday places and to the poetry and potential of the vernacular landscape. The lead- ing figures in this adventure were Guido Guidi, Mario Cresci, Gabriele Basilico, Vincenzo Castella, Vittore Fossati and Olivo Barbieri. - Withingage with this the context, ideas and this issues research of place attempts and landscape to actuate, engendered redefine and by further Viaggio en in Italia by focusing on the town of Lugo in the Bassa Romagna (or the lowlands ofthat Emilia-Romagna), Lugo is of particular in the interest north-east for a series of Italy. of historicalThe premise reasons, of my and research through is my curatorial and artistic practice I have explored this location in a multi-fac- etedphotographic photographic work case realised study. in ILugo have from investigated the late nineteenthand edited specificcentury bodiesup to the of present day. This research process has involved the discovery of previously unknown archives, which I have investigated and interpreted for the first time. 9 Following the current fertile debate around place, which favours an interdis- ciplinary approach, I have drawn first on a specific history of spatial thinking,- developed since the 1970s across various disciplines in the humanities (phi losophy,space and geography place in a and new social way. Thescience), main whichinnovation has reflected in this debate on the was nature a new of conception of space, not as something preordained but rather as one that is relative, relational, and dependent on social interactions. Within this context, I have then followed an approach to place which combines phenomenology (inspired by Heidegger’s philosophical approach that favours a subjective and- existential approach) with the postmodern theory of assemblage (an ontologi cal framework developed around 1980 by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari that has proved particularly appropriate for place-based research). I have employed these theoretical frameworks and my historical research to informfrom my my own own personal reflexive perspective. photographic In this practice, way my which research further combines explores different Lugo photographic narratives and ways of investigating a territory into a unique and coherent whole, creating a new and distinct case study within the context of Italian photography and place-based research. 10 List of contents L 21 PREFACE 27 INTRODUCTIONI.1 Preliminary notes on historical research and artistic practice 27 31 I.2I.3 ResearchSpace and questions place as a way of understanding 33 38 I.4 Research methodology and structure 11.1 SPACE Space AND or place? PLACE: A WAY OF UNDERSTANDING 49 1.2 Phenomenology in place theory 4958 1.3 Phenomenology in photography 63 1.4 Assemblage theory in place theory 1.5 Assemblage theory in photography 95101 108 1.61.7 NewLugo thinkingas a phenomenological in contemporary assemblage debates about place 119 2 VIAGGIO IN ITALIA 127 2.1 The Viaggio in Italia. AN ADVENTURE OF THOUGHT AND GAZE 127 project and its impact on Italian photography 2.22.3 TheAtlante project title 139143 2.4 The boot 147 151 2.52.6 TheA place heritage without of Viaggio Giotto’s in OItalia 157 and the context of the Emilia-Romagna region 11 LUGO LAND L 3 THE PROJECT AND THE OPENING OF A HISTORICAL 173 PERSPECTIVE IN PLACE-BASED RESEARCH 3.1 Lugo Land: an introduction 173 Lugo Land commission 177 3.23.3 GenesisThe Lugo of Land the project. book series The and educational programme 187 3.4 A historical perspective on place-based research 193 FOUR COURTYARDS 211 44.1 RESEARCH City portraits WORK: and archival images: an introduction 211 4.2 Courtyards 227 4.3 Four courtyards: Lugo as a conceptual assemblage 230 261 CONCLUSION 261 C.1C.2 ResearchContribution objectives to knowledge 270 276 C.3 Summary of reflections APPENDIXA.1 Paolo Guerra, photographer: an archive rediscovered 283 325 BIBLIOGRAPHYB.1 Texts sources 325 342 B.2B.3 OnlineConferences sources 344 12 List of figures L 1. Former Venturi vinegar factory, Lugo, 2015. From the series LucaThe Hanging Nostri, Garden 20 2. Looking, west2009-2020 from the top of the Monument to Baracca, Lugo, Luca2014. Nostri,