MEMORY APPESI is the story of the work of recovering the photos damaged by the floods of May 2023 carried out by the Bondi family, owners of a historic photographic studio in the city, to help the people of Faenza who on that tragic occasion, in addition to the very serious damage to their homes, lost in the water and mud tens of thousands of memories fixed in the photographs they kept. The project was created precisely with the desire to save those memories, photographs that constituted the private archive that each family kept in their homes: moments of conviviality, images of distant people imprinted in moments of life blocked on photographic paper, ancestors whose memory was only possible in photos, friends with whom we had shared moments of life, loved ones who were no longer with us, in short, memories told through images. MEMORY APPESI therefore brings to view a part of this private heritage, of people who suffered the tragedy of the flood that the Bondi family wanted to help by saving these precious testimonies, a unique experience of its kind which involved hours of work donated to city for a conservative restoration of over sixty thousand photographs which tells an emotional but also technical-scientific narrative.
The exhibition is in collaboration with FUJIFILM Italia, Associazione Culturale Fatti d’Arte and Associazione Culturale Fototeca Manfrediana from 8 to 31 May 2024 at the Hall of Flags of the Municipality of Faenza.
Inauguration on Wednesday 8 May 2024 at 6pm
“Ours – explains Maria Laura Argnani – was a truly touching experience which led us to put ourselves at the service of the people of Faenza in such a difficult moment where the flood had spared nothing, destroyed the city, the houses and undermined the certainties , even the most concrete ones, of sacrifices of a lifetime. Our family wanted to do something for our fellow citizens who, in addition to having lost material goods, had lost their memories. Our commitment started from here, outlining the techniques and deepening the research. We relived the memories of hundreds of people, some even from out of town: moments of joy, of happiness of intimacy, outings, holidays and family rituals. We recovered the private assets of an unknown number of people but we know that the number of photographs washed, dried and returned in the end was 61,000. Our state of mind was initially that of always trying to recover everything, with the awareness that it would be a difficult job. The strongest memory of those days spent washing and recovering photographs is the emotion in the eyes of the people to whom we returned the images and their smile of almost disbelief.”
The exhibition that will be set up in the Salone delle Bandiere of Palazzo Manfredi consists of 36 large images printed on Crystal Archive Professional VELVET from the Original Photo Paper family by FUJIFILM, which supported the project. VELVET is a silver halide color paper, specially designed for making Fine Art prints. This photographic paper has a particular surface that makes it soft and deeply opaque, also including a layer of protection against fingerprints; this greatly simplifies the management of the artistic images produced. The zero reflective surface makes it suitable for artistic exhibitions in any environment and even under direct light. Seduction and elegance are ensured by perfect color rendering, with pure whites and a soft and continuous tone, characteristics that only the range of silver halide papers are able to provide. This enchanting and precious photographic paper stands out from every other item on the market. Velvet is the perfect support for impressive artistic prints and for decorative and furnishing use, for photobooks with an incredible impact, for museum prints and obviously for exhibition use. The images printed on all FUJFILM silver halide photographic papers retain a fixity of the image and colors unaltered over time. This is another addition to FUJIFILM’s silver halide paper range. All the material is part of private archives while the curators of the exhibition were the volunteers of the Manfrediana Photo Library: Gian Marco Magnani, Michele Argnani. Testimonies from Giovanna Greco, Rai3 journalist and Giorgio Gatta.
