As part of the programme of meetings that nctm e l’arte dedicates to the protagonists of the contemporary art scene, Chiaralice Rizzi and Alessandro Laita present the project The Memory of the Air and the related publication
The project is a scattered fresco, made up of stories and personal memories. It is the result of the encounter between the two artists and the Marubi National Museum of Photography in Shkodra (Albania), which documents a century of Albanian history and society through a central core of five hundred thousand negatives.
Being intrigued by this resource, Chiaralice Rizzi and Alessandro Laita carried out an extensive research in the area of Shkodra and Tirana in order to find in people’s homes family photographs taken by Pietro Marubi, his successors and, in some cases, by other photographers whose work was included in the archive.
Starting from the photos found in the houses, during encounters specifically organised for such purpose, Rizzi and Laita collected a series of memories from the inhabitants, and when possible from the protagonists of the photos themselves.
This process culminated in their artistic work, which took the form of a nucleus of photographs of the mainly domestic environments in which Marubi’s shots are still kept and of a sound installation created from the stories collected.
Project realised thanks to the support of the Italian Council (9th edition, 2020), a programme for the international promotion of Italian art by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, presented by AFOL Metropolitana with the Bauer school, in collaboration with the Marubi Museum in Shkodra. The photographs related to the project were brought into the collection of the Museo di Fotografia Cotemporanea of Cinisello Balsamo (MUFOCO).