India News | Kolkata Hosts Italian Lensman's Works on Urban Landscapes

Kolkata, Jun 8 (PTI) As late Italian photographer Gabriele Basilico's celebrated works on urban landscapes are being exhibited in Kolkata, the consul general of that country here on Wednesday heaped praises on the people of the city for their passion for different forms of art.

Basilico's exhibition "Photographs of Italy -- Fotografie dell'Italia" takes a trip through time around the beautiful cities of Italy, spanning his career of four decades.

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"This is the first time that the works of one of the most important contemporary photographers are exhibited in Kolkata. Gabriele Basilico is well-known for his work in different cities of the world, but we wanted to focus on his photographs of Italy, which cover both famous tourist places and unusual locations," Consul General Gianluca Rubagotti said.

Italy and Kolkata have a great tradition in various art forms, but the idea of this exhibition is to highlight the present and not the past, the diplomat told PTI.

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Altogether 21 photographs, in monochrome and colour, of cities of the southern European country are now on display in an art gallery of Kolkata.

The Italian consulate general's office managed to organise three events on an average every month in Kolkata in the past two years “despite the difficult situation”, thanks to the passion for different forms of art among the people here, Rubagotti said.

“We are trying to cover all the possible fields - photography, visual arts, dance, theatre, music, cinema and literature. I have to admit that being in Kolkata makes it easier…. I strongly believe that all these events can reinforce the people-to-people connection," he said.

The exhibition of Basilico's photographs began on June 3 and will continue till June 19.

Basilico, the internationally known photographer of urban landscapes, had captured through lens the contemporary landscape, the shape and identity of cities in the transition from the industrial to the post-industrial era.

The key photographic projects of his later life included Moscow (2008), Istanbul (2010), Shanghai (2010), Beirut (2011) and Rio de Janeiro (2011). In 2012, he participated in the XIII International Architecture Exhibition in Venice with the Common Pavilions project. The recipient of numerous international awards died in Milan in 2013.

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