The other side of the Moon, Exhibition Palace of Fears, Lecco

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The other side of the Moon:

The Seventies and the Utopia of the Rock Festival

From 29 November to 17 January 2027

Palace of Fears

Piazza XX Settembre, 22, Lecco

Closed now: open at 10:00

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The collective photo exhibition The other side of the moon. The Seventies and the utopia of Rock Festivals is conceived and organized by the Municipality of Lecco and by the Urban Museum System of Lecco.

Curated by Barbara Cattaneo, Luigi Erba, and Roberto Mutti, the exhibition gathers the images of eight photographers who documented and interpreted the Italian epic of the Rock Festival that in the Seventies contributed to challenging the conservatism of that time.

These are accompanied by the contemporary works of a famous and combative graphic designer who fought against stereotypes and censorship with his posters. The exhibition is set up in the space of the Photographic Library, created specifically, also from an exhibition point of view, to give space to photography, engravings, and works on paper that allow the public to approach the artistic heritage of the Museums of Lecco, inserting new acquisitions in the broader national and international cultural panorama.

The echo of the American teenagers who waved the word "beat" as an identity banner and who recognized themselves in a spectacular Rock Festival at Woodstock also reaches Italy.

The idea of organizing one in Lecco takes shape in May 1970 in Ballabio in the park of the villa of the parents of a young man from Lecco (Riccardo Gaio) who had gathered his friends there. Thus, in a large meadow surrounded by woods in the Montalbano area regularly rented, on September 25 and 26, 1971, the "Festival of Re Nudo" was born (named after the involved underground magazine), open, it was hoped, to two thousand people.

Twelve thousand people arrived and among the crowd with his camera was Aldo Manessier, a photographer from Lecco and co-founder of the Lecco Photo Club, who documented that event with images that represented the empathy he felt for the young people gathered there.

He was not a professional, but he acted professionally, and that is always what matters. This is the approach we wanted to follow in this collective exhibition, combining simple enthusiasts and established authors, to create a panorama that does not claim to be exhaustive because there were many photographers at the many festivals, but to evoke with these images the atmosphere of those formidable years.

Years also evoked by an entire section where some of the most significant and combative posters created by the great graphic designer Gianfranco Iliprandi are exhibited.

In 1972, always in June, the second edition in Zerbo in the province of Pavia acquires the definitive name "Festival of Youth Proletariat". The audience rises to 30,000 participants as Renato Corsini tells in his incisive images investigating the new way of flowing music and, above all, of being together.

In 1974, the festival arrives in Milan for its definitive consecration in three memorable editions recounted here from different perspectives.

If Dino Fracchia does it with his incisive and highly engaging reportage style in describing the environment, Fabio Minotti does it with the enthusiasm of a young enthusiast focusing on the musicians. The couples Gabriele Basilico-Giovanna Calvenzi and Silvia Lelli-Roberto Masotti highlight a narrative ability that combines the documentary need with careful compositional research, shifting the focus from the stage to the audience that not only listened but was also a protagonist.

But what strikes the most is the attitude of the photographers, never external observers of what was happening on stage and among the crowd, but involved and participatory. It was the lesson of the Woodstock photographers that some had studied and now had filtered to make it personal with a militant style so passionate that it still moves us today.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with texts by the curators and numerous photographs produced by Editoria Grafica Colombo of Valmadrera. Guided tours, conferences, and educational workshops for children and families will be organized during the exhibition.

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	opens - closes	last entry
monday	Closed now
tuesday	10:00 - 14:00
wednesday	10:00 - 18:00
thursday	10:00 - 18:00
friday	10:00 - 18:00
saturday	10:00 - 18:00
sunday	10:00 - 18:00

The other side of the Moon:

The Seventies and the Utopia of the Rock Festival

Displayed Works

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at Palace of Fears

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in Lecco

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