Italian Islands in Cologne - Archipelago 2023

Italian Institute of Culture Cologne (Germany), 2023

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The island is evocative.

 

What you thought was a small dot on the earth was everything, writes Elsa Morante in the dedication to Remo N. which opens the novel "L'Isola d'Arturo".

 

And it seems to me that this sentence hides the deepest key to interpreting the subject of this exhibition. The island like everything. A microcosm in itself, surrounded by the sea. A destination that must be conquered, and whose achievement can never be taken for granted. A limited reality which, to survive, must be ready to be self-sufficient, in a relationship with the mainland which is often imbued with poignant distance, proud autonomy and magnetic attraction.

 

A microcosm on which, however, contact with others has affected, over time, profound transformations which open up, today, to new readings.

 

Corinna Del Bianco's exhibition speaks to us about this, and much more, which scans the Mediterranean islands with her lens, capturing details like shreds of a single, extraordinary story.

 

Dr. Jolanda Lamberti

Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Cologne

 

 

Author

Corinna Del Bianco

 

Editorial Team

Noora Alhashimi, Myrto Gatou, Costanza Leoni & Spencer Nash

 

English Translation

Spencer Nash

 

Traduzioni tedesche

Judith Brandenburg & Dagmar Bruss

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Layout Design

Myrto Gatou & Spencer Nash

 

Video Footage

Corinna Del Bianco

Editing

Spencer Nash

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Basemaps

Carta Tecnica Regionale (CTR) and www.openseamap.com

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The exhibition was supported by the specific crowdfunding campaign and produced thanks to the contribution of the Italian Cultural Institutes of Hamburg, Montreal and Cologne.

 

Supporters 

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the crowdfunding campaign towards the realisation of this publication and photographic exhibition.

Their contributions to ‘Archipelago’ helps shed light on the diverse yet neglected islands of the Mediterranean Sea.