Ossi di Seppia at San Fruttuoso di Camogli
The fantastic photographic exhibition “Ossi di Seppia. Ugo Mulas, Eugenio Montale” will be held from 18th July 2024 to 16th February 2025, at the FAI Abbey of San Fruttuoso. This exhibition showcases the intense and evocative dialogue between two artistic languages—photography and poetry—and between two great masters of Italian culture.
Ugo Mulas and Eugenio Montale
Curated by Guido Risicato and the Ugo Mulas Archive, the exhibition, set up in various areas of the Abbey, presents twenty-five black-and-white photographs taken by Ugo Mulas in 1962 in Monterosso, in the Cinque Terre—an area where Eugenio Montale spent his childhood and which inspired the poet in composing the collection *Ossi di Seppia*. The photographs conceptually express the landscape described by the poet during what he himself referred to as the “proto-Montale” period, specifically in 1925.
The Verses of Ossi di Seppia
Always fascinated by those verses, Ugo Mulas decided to illustrate the collection for a magazine and travelled to Monterosso with the intention of capturing on film that feeling—a combination of absolute and profound solitude—represented by the sea, the sun, and the rocks. The result is a photographic work characterised by the choice of unusual perspectives and an intense lyricism that completely aligns with the poet’s work, where the word finds a perfect correspondence with the image.
Ugo Mulas
Ugo Mulas was born in Pozzolengo (BS) in 1928. In the early 1950s, he frequented the Jamaica Bar, a meeting place for intellectuals and artists. The 1954 Venice Biennale marked the beginning of his career as a photographer. During a tour in Moscow with the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, he created an independent reportage on Russia in 1960. His collaboration with Giorgio Strehler led him to develop a unique method of documenting the theatrical scene. By the end of the 1960s, he followed the most important artistic events, including “Lo spazio dell’immagine” in Foligno, the protests of 1968 at the Triennale in Milan, the Venice Biennale, and “Documenta” in Kassel. He passed away in his studio apartment in Milan on 2nd March 1973.
