FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano

THE EXHIBITION

"Landscapes shape our life and our personality, they set our human condition and, if you are attentive, you can sharpen your sensitivity towards them, you discover that they have stories to tell and that they are much more than simple places."

These words by Wim Wenders describe his approach by using a camera that reproduces visions that overturn the normal perception of landscape and show the essence of a place. The exhibition organized at Villa e Collezione Panza from January, 16th until March, 29th displays 34 photos shot in the United States from the end of the 70s until 2003. In this way, Villa e Collezione Panza, a wonderful FAI mansion in the heart of Varese, inaugurates an attentive project devoted to contemporary photography.

An European Glance on America

The exhibition “Wim Wenders. America”, supervised by Villa e Collezione Panza Director Anna Bernardini, displays the famous German director and photographer’s keen glance, aimed to the contemplation of the immensity of nature and of the power of light. Places, landscapes, architectures, roads: the European eye meets, feels, sees and records the American culture. Just like, starting from the 50s, Giuseppe Panza di Biumo visited, felt and understood the American spirit through the art, which allowed him to create the collection.

The Works

The chronological and thematic order of the exhibition leads the visitor to the discovery of the personal interpretation of America by Wim Wenders. The whole exhibition is dedicated by Wenders to the friend Dennis Hopper and the artist Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967). The empty shop in Las Vegas of Entire Family, the Drive – in in Marfa, the supermarket Safeway in Texas, the futuristic architecture of the Houston building in Entrance and many other shots try to immortalize human beings gone somewhere else and to save them from the flow of time. On the other hand, Cowboy Bar (never exhibited before), Western World Development, Near Four Corners, show in a convincing way the picture narrative function. The exhibition ends in Villa Panza Stables with the work in five “acts” New York, November 8, 2001 dedicated to Ground Zero: an intense and moving prayer that leads the visitor to reflect on violence and public tragedy.