Blessed youth. From Faganello to Instagram

In the European Year of Youth, here's an itinerary that intersects photography and young people's culture, captured in its collective and transgressive identity, in a complex relationship with previous generations and tradition.

Flavio Faganello, a sensitive and attentive chronicler of the changes affecting Trentino between the 1960s and 1970s, focuses on the horizons of youth cultures and worlds, and becomes the driving force behind a confrontation between generations, open to our time and Instagram Stories.

The protagonist is the "Beata gioventù" ("Blessed youth"), which was photographed while becoming aware of itself and in its most recent experiences, in a context of new challenges and transformations.

The exhibition Beata gioventù. Da Faganello a Instagram (Blessed youth. From Faganello to Instagram), on display from 24 June to 30 October 2022, is promoted by the Department for Cultural Heritage of Trento of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Municipality of Campodenno. It focuses on evocative aspects of the history and evolution of youth cultures and worlds in the setting of Belasi Castle, which was restored in the last few years, and enhanced as a centre of photographic culture and exhibition venue for the Province's Historical Photographic Archive.

The initiative focuses on a selection of photographs by Flavio Faganello (1933-2005) who, between the 1960s and 1970s, was able to catch the early signs of the bursting onto the scene of youth as a new social subject.

His work takes us back to the origins of a real youth culture, animated by a strong urge for change, aware of its own difference and indeed ready to organise itself as a transgressive and conflictual collective identity, in parallel with the revolt against the authoritarianism and respectability of the adult world that flowed into the 1968 movement.

At Castel Belasi, Faganello's photographs, accompanied by excerpts from songs of the time as powerful vehicles of expression, identification and aggregation, will be put in relation with a selection of images from the "Ti conosco mascherina" project of the Centro Cultura Fotografica@Trento and with photographs collected through the amateur photo competition, promoted in collaboration with the tourist board of Castel Belasi di Campodenno. The project thus invites us to extend the reflection to our time and to the Z Generation, marked by the pandemic; in fact, the pandemic has disrupted the lives of young people even more radically than other demographic groups. The comparison will also help to focus on the social functions of the photographic medium in the era of the digital revolution and of the selfie, in a context that has profoundly called into question the concepts of youth and adulthood.

The proposal, conceived and carried out by an intergenerational team, is finally completed through the parallel tale in images curated by a trio of female university students through the dedicated Instagram profile @mostra_castel_belasi (with particular attention to the languages and sensibilities of the audience of peers)

Here is the call for entries

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Beata gioventù. Da Faganello a Instagram

24.06-30.10 2022
Castel Belasi, Campodenno (TN)

Curated by: Katia Malatesta, Marta Villa

Texts by: Katia Malatesta, Marta Villa
Layout by: Vito Mazzurana
Organization by: Barbara Baldo, Katia Malatesta, Vito Mazzurana, Roberta Opassi, Daniela Pera, Marta Villa
Graphic concept by: Wasabi snc Elaborazione grafica: Giulia Raffi
Instagram profile management by: Arissa Ferrari, Linda Leveghi, Giulia Raffi

Opening times:

> opening: Friday 24 June at 17.30
> from Saturday 25 June: Sat, Sun and public holidays from 10.00 to 18.00
> from Saturday 2 July to Sunday 11 September: daily, except for Monday, from 10.00 to 18.00
> from 12 September to 30 October: Sat and Sun from 10.00 to 18.00

Click here for entry conditions