Matera Imagined/Matera Immaginata: Photography and a Southern Italian Town

with

Lindsay Harris

Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities

followed by a reception

Thursday, November 16

18:30-20:00

American Academy in Rome

Via Angelo Masina 5

00153 Rome

RSVP by November 13 to sssromersvp@gmail.com

Organized by the American Academy in Rome, this exhibition highlights how photography has framed modern perceptions of Matera, a southern Italian town noted for its millennia-old cave dwellings. In the 1940s, following the publication of Italian author Carlo Levi’s best-selling memoir, Christ Stopped at Eboli, Matera became a symbol of southern Italian backwardness. Today, just over a generation later, Matera has emerged as a model of authenticity that will represent Europe as Capital of Culture in 2019.

The exhibition and catalogue are made possible by Fondazione Matera Basilicata 2019. Additional support provided by Richard Baron and Adi Shamir Baron.