Few images of the artists on stage and more space off stage: the singers during rehearsals, the artists' catwalks around the city, the autographs, the audience, the artists portrayed in curious situations, the make-up room, the orchestra and the press room.
It is an unprecedented look at the Sanremo Festival that offered by the exhibition "Non ha l'età. The Sanremo Festival in black and white 1951-1976" curated by Aldo Grasso, from 1 February to 12 May at the Gallerie d'Italia in Turin .
In total 85 shots selected from over 15,000 taken by the photojournalists of the Publifoto Agency in the years in which the Festival was hosted in the Sanremo Casino (1951-1976).
The title refers to the well-known song by Gigliola Cinquetti who will be a guest on February 21st at one of the Inside events that will accompany the exhibition.
"The Festival was born as a tourist promotion of Sanremo, the shot comes thanks to the radio. Today it is the festival of Italian television, it is the most important television moment of the year, not only because the competition lowers its weapons since it would be defeated, not only because all Rai programs do nothing but talk about Sanremo, but also because this extension from Tuesday to Saturday, the pre- and post-festival are something that marks a ritual moment" observes Aldo Grasso.
Regarding the selection criteria for the photos, the critic explains that "the first choice was not to show the singers on stage and to show things that no one had seen until then: Sanremo in the 1950s, the first meeting with people with the birth of singing stardom, the backstage, the hairdressers".
Guido Rossi, head of the Rai Production Center in Turin, recalls "the Turin origins" of the Festival: "In those years the centrality of the Rai Production Center and the Turin headquarters was evident. Radio and the Production Center all followed the first editions of the Festival. In some photos you can see the cameras that we keep in our radio and television museum, we would like to bring them here on display".
Thanks to the media partnership with Rai, the exhibition is enriched by video-sound contributions in collaboration with Rai Teche.
"The exhibition is a tribute to the Sanremo Festival which still today unites all generations around Italian music and culture. The exhibition is also testimony to the bank's participation in the country's moments of identity through the valorisation and sharing of images from the Archive Publifoto" comments Michele Coppola, Head of Culture at Intesa Sanpaolo.
On the occasion of the exhibition, the Historical Archive has restored, digitized and cataloged all the over 15,000 photographs of the services created at the Festival by the Publifoto Agency, which can now be consulted online on the Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archive website.
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