Gabriele Basilico. Le mie città

On the occasion of “Gabriele Basilico. Le mie città”, the exhibition that Milan dedicated to its outstanding photographer on the tenth anniversary of his untimely death, Electa is publishing a rich catalogue that seeks to restore his cosmopolitan gaze, which explored the horizons of the world but was rooted in the city of his birth.

The volume, designed by Tomo Tomo studio, is published in a double format that enables four pages to be placed side by side (with the final dimensions of 89x33cm) and reflects the twofold exhibition itinerary that unfolds between Palazzo Reale (from 13 October 2023 to 11 February 2024) and Triennale Milano (from 13 October 2023 to 7 January 2024). The large format and over 400 pages contain the numerous photo shoots conducted by Basilico around the world alongside his constant work dedicated to Milan, investigated both in the outer city, so beloved of the photographer, and in its central and better-known places. The multiplicity of places that Basilico’s camera captured is embodied in this publication, which uses a special format to enable the reader to go on an unparalleled visual and geographical journey.
The red lead chosen for the cover recalls the colour of the anti-rust paint used on many construction sites and alludes to Basilico’s interest in urban spaces, factories and workplaces, which he was able to capture like no other. The typeface chosen also relates to the commonest and most pervasive font in all the urban spaces of the globe, namely Helvetica, the emblem of modernism, but now also an aesthetic key to the dense language of contemporary metropolises.

The photographs are accompanied by curatorial texts by Filippo Maggia and Matteo Balduzzi, two texts written for the occasion by Sandra S. Philips, for the section dedicated to the world presented at Palazzo Reale, and Luca Doninelli for Milan, exhibited at the Triennale, as well as an anthology of some of the most significant texts in recent decades dealing with Basilico’s photography.

It is precisely these words, reread now, together with the collection of photographs presented that enable the viewer to respond to the poetry of the emotional narrative that Basilico created with his gaze, searching, as he himself said, for “Milan in all the cities of the world”.