ROME - The Terme di Caracalla will host from May 27 to November 5 2023 the exhibition “Letizia Battaglia Senza Fine,” a homage to the Sicilian photographer, champion of civil rights.

 "Letizia Battaglia represents an exemplary combination of civil commitment, social sentiment and an artistic gaze” explains Daniela Porro, Special Superintendent of Rome. 'On the 30th anniversary of the attacks on San Giovanni in Laterano and San Giorgio al Velabro, the Superintendency dedicates this exhibition to her, opening two new rooms of the Baths of Caracalla to the public, to show how her images enter fully into the history of photography.”

 Promoted by the Special Superintendency of Rome directed by Daniela Porro, organised by Electa in collaboration with the Letizia Battaglia Archive and the Falcone Foundation for the Arts, the exhibition is curated by Paolo Falcone.

 "This new project maintains the tradition of composing a unique, athematic, timeless work and devoid of hierarchies where iconic photographs, travel notes, everyday life build an open narrative to get to know and discover the many aspects of Letizia Battaglia,” said the curator, Paolo Falcone.

 A selection of 92 large-format photographs summarises fifty years of photographic work (1971-2020) by Battaglia with iconic, lesser-known or previously unpublished images on show. “With this exhibition, the spaces available to visitors are extended," says site director Mirella Serlorenzi.

 The Soprintendenza has restored an original entrance to the western gymnasium and in the other room, with the pool, identified the heating system and a fragment of geometric mosaic. The ongoing restoration work at the Baths of Caracalla is an opportunity for study, research and discovery of this incredible monument.”

 The exhibition inside the archaeological area benefits from a layout that pays tribute to another great artist: the architect Lina Bo Bardi. She is responsible for the tempered glass displays at the Museo de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil. Her famous cavaletes of 1968 inspired the display structures of the photographs by Letizia Battaglia.

 The initiative is part of the Teatro dell'Opera's Caracalla Festival 2023, so on 25 and 28 July and 1 August at the Teatro del Portico there will be meetings dedicated to Letizia Battaglia and to the anniversary of the assassination attempt. On this occasion, the volume "Letizia Battaglia Senza Fine", published by Electa, dedicated to the Sicilian photographer, will be presented to the public.

 "I am particularly excited - says Francesco Giambrone, Superintendent of the Teatro dell'Opera of Rome - that the Caracalla Festival 2023 will host the exhibition of Letizia Battaglia, who has dedicated her entire life to civil and political commitment and to photography. Finding her works in such a wonderful space as the Terme di Caracalla, will be like paying her a grateful and moved homage.”

 The exhibition also offers the opportunity to remember the 30th anniversary of the attacks on San Giovanni in Laterano and San Giorgio al Velabro in Rome, which occurred on the night of July 27-28 1993. A wound in the heart of the historic city, which ties in with the photographer's best-known images, those of the merciless mafia war of the 1970s and 1980s, one of the bloodiest, most poetic, poignant and dramatic pages of Sicily, but above all to the spirit of Letizia Battaglia, who has always looked at photography as an instrument of intervention and social denunciation.

 “Letizia Battaglia Senza Fine” is running from May 27 to November 5 2023 at the Terme di Caracalla, viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 52.

 For more information: www.coopculture.it

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