Turin. The magic eye of Carlo Mollino

CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, the Turin-based observatory on national and international photography, hosts the exhibition “L’occhio magico di Carlo Mollino. Fotografie 1934-1973” (“The Magic Eye of Carlo Mollino. Photographs 1934-1973”), the most comprehensive exhibition ever organized of Italian architect and photographer Carlo Mollino’s work, on view from January 18 until May 13, 2018. Curated by Francesco Zanot, the exhibition tracks the artist’s photographic work chronologically – from his early experimentations with architectural shots in the 1930s to the Polaroids pictures he took during the last years of his life – and argues for the extraordinary diversity and complexity of his production.

“L’occhio magico di Carlo Mollino. Fotografie 1934-1973” establishes the artist’s full oeuvre and features over 500 archive pictures organized in four thematic sections: “Mille case” (“a thousand houses”); “Fantasie di un quotidiano impossibile” (“Fantasies of an impossible everyday”); “Mistica dell’acrobazia” (“The mysticism of whatever is possible”); “L’amante del duca” (“The duke’s lover”).

For Mollino (1905-1973), who is regarded as one of the most influential Italian architects of the twentieth century, photography had a twofold purpose: a powerful expressive medium and an indispensable tool to document and keep track of both his work as an architect and his everyday life. His shifts between color and black and white, his use of glass plate, film and Polaroid cameras, and his constant variation of subject characterize a visually disparate body of work. Hence, the exhibition honors his penchant for reinvention: on show are still-life images of objects, snapshots of daily scenes and travels, mysterious photomontages and enigmatic compositions inspired by the surrealist aesthetic, a series of photos dedicated to his passionate love for flying, motors, and skiing along with a series of portraits celebrating the human body, representing both beautiful women and one of his favorite subject of all times, skiers.

On top: Carlo Mollino and Riccardo Moncalvo, Società Ippica Torinese, photomontage, 1941. Courtesy Politecnico di Torino, Archives section, Roberto Gabetti Library, Fondo Carlo Mollino