Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m. presents a heartfelt homage to Bologna, a city to which it is deeply connected: it was here that the gallery was founded in 1978, and it is also the birthplace and home of one of its most significant references, Giorgio Morandi. This tribute is brought to life through the sensitive lens of Lorenzo Capellini, an internationally renowned photographer whose entire photographic archive has been acquired by La Biennale di Venezia.
The exhibition offers a visual journey through some of the city’s symbolic sites, some of which are closely intertwined with the gallery’s own history. A key starting point is Capellini’s photographs taken inside Giorgio Morandi’s home, a space suspended in time, where light, objects, and silence still seem to preserve the master’s discreet presence. Capellini captures the poetry of this environment, focusing on the objects used in Morandi’s celebrated still lifes and the simplicity of the furnishings, presenting quiet glimpses where one can imagine the artist moving among small repeated gestures, attentive to detail, and devoted entirely to his work.
Alongside the images from Morandi’s home, the exhibition also explores other emblematic sites across the city, each carrying its own history and unique atmosphere. The artistic realm continues with photographs of Nicolò dell’Arca’s Compianto sul Cristo morto, housed in the Church of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna. Capellini’s images reveal the extraordinary emotional power of this masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, capturing its dramatic intensity and presenting it to the viewer in all its pathos. The exhibition then moves to the historic spaces of Majani, where period furnishings and the scent of chocolate evoke a Bologna rich in tradition and artisanal expertise. The Hospice facilities, funded by the Fondazione Hospice MT. Chiantore Seragnoli Onlus, are portrayed by Capellini with attentive respect. The historic Libreria Nanni, long a crossroads of ideas, voices, and encounters, comes alive in the photographs with all the cultural energy it has consistently inspired. Together, these locations form a mosaic of memories and presences, a sentimental journey through Bologna’s past and present. Capellini’s photographs were recently published in the book Bologna. Frammenti di Emozioni (Fragments of Emotions) by Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi, Minerva, 2025.
Through Lorenzo Capellini’s vision, Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m. renews its connection to the local territory, demonstrating how an international vocation can — and must — coexist with a deeply rooted identity, acknowledging that addressing a global audience also means preserving and valuing one’s profound roots.
Biographical notes:
Lorenzo Capellini is an Italian photographer of extraordinary significance, whose career spans over six decades, crossing genres, continents, and the protagonists of art, culture, and society. Born in Genoa, he began his career in London between 1958 and 1964, collaborating with major British and Italian publications, including the celebrated weekly Il Mondo by Mario Pannunzio, and producing documentaries for RAI. In 1959, while reporting in Spain on bullfighting, he met Ernest Hemingway, with whom he developed a close and profound relationship. In the 1960s, Capellini traveled to Africa several times with Alberto Moravia for reports published in Corriere della Sera. Upon returning to Italy, he focused on artists, photographing sculptors such as Moore, Marini, and Pomodoro, and collaborating with major architectural magazines. His connection to the Venice Biennale is a central element of his biography. From 1974 to 1978, Capellini served as the official photographer of the Biennale, documenting key editions under the presidency of Carlo Ripa di Meana. This work produced a visual heritage of enormous historical and artistic value, so much so that the Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts of the Biennale acquired his entire photographic collection. In 2023, on the occasion of the Biennale acquiring his archive, an exhibition was held in Venice titled B74-78. Lorenzo Capellini. A Photographic Story, retracing his visual contribution to the four-year Biennale under Ripa di Meana (1974–1978). He has exhibited his photographs in over 250 solo exhibitions worldwide, including at the Centre Pompidou- Beaubourg in Paris, New York University, Palazzo Reale in Milan, and Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, among others. His work has alternated between environmental and animal rights campaigns — from Canada to the Pacific Ocean to South Africa — and projects in the world of opera, from Teatro alla Scala in Milan to the Comunale in Bologna. Capellini has published over eighty books, including a series created with writer friends on places they loved, such as Bologna. Frammenti di Emozioni (Fragments of Emotions) with Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi, Africa with Moravia, Sicily with Dacia Maraini, and Cervo with Pietro Citati.
Through this path, Capellini has become a visual witness to Italian and international 20th- century art and literature, with a style that is both poetic and documentary, helping to preserve the historical memory of the Venice Biennale and other major cultural institutions.