Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

The exhibition anticipates the program "The talents of women" which throughout 2020 will propose multidisciplinary initiatives dedicated to the female universe

Milan, 4 December 2019 – From 5 December to 19 January 2020, in the exhibition spaces of Palazzo Reale in Milan, the major exhibition “Stories of the Street” will be open to the public, a large retrospective with over 300 photographs that reconstruct Letizia's extraordinary professional life by stages and themes Battle.

Promoted by the Municipality of Milan | Culture, Palazzo Reale and Civita exhibitions and museums, the exhibition anticipates with its opening the "The talents of women" program, promoted and coordinated by the Department of Culture, which will propose multidisciplinary initiatives throughout 2020 - from visual arts to various forms of live entertainment, from literature to the media, from fashion to science - dedicated to women protagonists in culture and creative thought.

“Letizia Battaglia is a protagonist of our story, because she tells with personal courage and expressive talent the whole life that passes in front of her lens, putting us in front of the portrait of what we don't know or sometimes, simply, we don't want to see – declares the Councilor for Culture Filippo Del Corno -. A path that, as she herself declares, she was able to develop when she arrived in Milan at the beginning of the seventies, where she found those conditions of creative freedom that allowed her to transform her vocation for truth and social criticism into photographic language , to constructive denunciation". 

In fact, Letizia Battaglia states: “In 1971, Milan welcomed me and gave me the opportunities to decide about my life. I was 36 years old and here, not in Palermo, I began to be a photographer."

With around 300 photographs, many of which are unpublished, "Stories of the street" spans the entire professional life of the Sicilian photographer and develops along a complex narrative path built on different chapters and themes. The portraits of women, men or animals, or children, are just some chapters that make up the exhibition; to these are added those on cities like Palermo, and therefore on politics, life, death and love, and two films that delve into her human and artistic story.

The exhibition itinerary focuses on the topics that have built the artist's most characteristic expressive style, which led her to make a profound and continuous social criticism, avoiding clichés and questioning the visual assumptions of contemporary culture. What results is a true portrait, that of an intellectual who goes against the grain, but also a poetic and political photographer, a woman who is interested in what surrounds her and what, far from her, intrigues her.

As Battaglia herself recalled, “I experienced photography as a document, as an interpretation and as more [...]. I experienced it as salvation and as truth." “I am a person – she states again – I am not a photographer. I'm a person who photographs."

“What the exhibition project aims to expose - recalls Francesca Alfano Miglietti, curator of the exhibition - of Letizia Battaglia's career, are 'forms of attention': something that comes even before her photographs, because Letizia Battaglia questioned herself on everything that fell under his gaze, whether it was a murder or a child, a glimpse or a gathering, a person or a sky. Looking was her main activity, which 'materialized' in extraordinary images."

Letizia Battaglia (Palermo, 1935) needs no introduction. She not only in Italy, but also abroad: in 2017 the New York Times cited her as one of the eleven extraordinary women of the year.

Letizia Battaglia gave an insider's account of all of Palermo, not to mention the contribution made to theatre, publishing and the promotion of photography as a discipline. She is recognized as one of the most important figures in contemporary photography not only for her shots firmly present in the collective imagination, but also for the civil and ethical value she attributes to taking photography.

Throughout her life Letizia Battaglia also told about the faces of the poor and the riots in the squares, always keeping the city as a privileged space for observing reality, as well as its urban landscape. Letizia Battaglia 'treats' her work as a manifesto, exposing her beliefs in a direct, true, poetic and cultured way, thus revolutionizing the role of news photography. She learned the technique directly 'on the street', and her images immediately stand out for the attempt to capture a powerful emotion and almost always a feeling of 'pietas'.

Letizia's subjects, chosen not at all randomly, have traced a path aimed at strengthening their ideologies and beliefs regarding society, political commitment, marginalized realities, the violence caused by wars of power, and the emancipation of women.

There are many documentaries that have investigated her figure as a woman and an artist, the most recent of which was presented at the 2019 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. The film Shooting The Mafia, directed by Kim Longinotto, tells the story of Letizia Battaglia, journalist and artist, who with her camera and her own eventful life witnesses firsthand a fundamental historical period for Sicily and for all of Italy , the one that culminated with the barbaric killings of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

The exhibition is accompanied by a Marsilio Editori catalogue, with texts by Francesca Alfano Miglietti, Leoluca Orlando, Maria Chiara Di Trapani, Filippo La Mantia, Paolo Ventura.

There are many initiatives included in the program of collateral activities linked to "Street Stories". A rich calendar of film screenings in collaboration with the MIC - Interactive Museum of Cinema: seven meetings from 10 December to 21 December 2020 (program on www.mostraletiziabattaglia.it and www.cinetecamilano.it).

And not only. From 5 December to 21 February 2020 it will be possible to participate in two photo contests: “Letizia Battaglia – Projects”, “Letizia Battaglia – People” which will invite you to take to the streets to photograph everyday life. The jury is made up of Letizia Battaglia, Francesca Alfano Miglietti and Denis Curti. The prizes include a portfolio reading and publications in sector publications. Participation in the competition is free and open to all, professionals and enthusiasts. The photos will be collected according to the methods established by the regulation. For more information www.mostraletiziabattaglia.it.

Finally, "Around Letizia" special visits including that of Francesca Alfano Miglietti, Antonio Marras and Vincenzo Argentieri, will allow the visitor to get to know Letizia Battaglia at 360 degrees.