Laboratorio Beirut 1991 Gabriele Basilico

The French Academy in Rome presents “Laboratorio Beirut 1991,” a photography exhibition by Gabriele Basilico, organized as part of the International Photography Festival currently taking place in Rome during the same period. In the Atelier du Bosco at the Villa Medici, Gabriele Basilico sought to recreate the walls of his own darkroom at the moment he was selecting photos from among the numerous contact sheets containing the images he had taken in Beirut. This entirely new work reveals the most delicate and complex moment in a photographer’s journey: the moment of choice. It is from this that “Laboratorio Beirut 1991” was born. The exhibition consists of a sequence of panels, each measuring 90 x 72 cm, arranged in parallel along the two eight-meter-long walls of this room, which was once Balthus’s studio. Each panel consists of 9 sheets measuring 30 x 24 cm (each contact sheet features 4 plates measuring 10 x 12 cm, mounted on aluminum) and contains a total of 36 photographs. Seventeen panels—16 in black and white and 1 in color—for a total of 578 photographs. The three large-format photographs, which will be placed at the back of the room, constitute the final result of this work. Gabriele Basilico, born in Milan in 1944, completed his architecture studies in 1973 and at the same time began to take an interest in photography, focusing particularly on the observation of urban environments and industrial landscapes. His first major solo exhibition, “Milano, ritratti di Fabbriche,” took place in 1983 at the PAC in Milan.

In 1990, for the “Porti di Mare” exhibition, he received the Mois de la Photo Award in Paris. In 1991, he took part in the Photographic Mission to the war-torn city of Beirut. In 1996, at the 6th Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, he received the Osella d’oro Award for contemporary architectural photography. In June 2002, for his book *Berlin*, he received the award for best photography book from Photo España. His photographic works are featured in major museums and institutions—both public and private—around the world. In 1991, the Lebanese writer Dominique Edde enlisted him in a project aimed at photographically documenting the central area of Beirut, torn apart by a war that lasted fifteen years. Joining him were five other photographers: Raymond Depardon, Joseph Koudelka, Robert Frank, René Burri, and Fouad Elkoury. Basilico took more than 500 photographs in the 10 x 12 cm format. Among these, several dozen formed the body of work titled “Beirut 1991,” which is now known worldwide. Organized in collaboration with the City of Rome and the production company Zone Attive – Produzioni per la cultura, this exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, Delegation for the Visual Arts.