Montegridolfo hosts the exhibition SPIRITS OF OLYMPIA. Athletes and context in the images of PARITANI.

The excitement of the passage of the Giro d'Italia was recently experienced, and on June 29, the first stage of the Tour de France will arrive in Rimini. These two extraordinary events, along with the international grand prix of cars and motorcycles, the European gymnastics championships, the world figure roller skating championships and, the many disciplines that meet in the Region, have provided the inspiration for the exhibition, on display until June 8, in the Sala Clementina of the Montegridolfo Town Hall.

"Spirits of Olympia" is a research path developed, since 1998, by Rimini photographers Roberto Pari and Sergio Tani (hence Paritani) and is composed of more than 60 images of athletes set in contexts of industrial archaeology. The authors sought to express a strong artistic and temporal contrast: the statuesque beauty of bodies in the suggestion of places of abandonment. As dreamlike backdrops, there are old factories, rope factories, oil mills, discotheques, which isolate the figures and frame them plastically, locking them in the agonistic tension of the athletic gesture. Those ruins evoke the cities of power and glory, of sublime Antiquity, while the young bodies represent the present moment, like a past that stubbornly wants to be reborn. These images also stand as a symbolic reference to the moment of discovery during the archaeological excavation, in which, among the remnants of history, sculptures shaped by ideal beauty re-emerge, just as RiminiWellness -the great fair dedicated to sports and physical activity- and the XXXIII Olympic Games in Paris coincide.

The exhibition, curated by Marco Musmeci, is part of the activities included in the local tourism promotion program, which under the title of "Emotions, ancient knowledge and good practices: Romagna in the Castle of Montegridolfo," places the small Malatesta village as a leading tourist and cultural destination in the province of Rimini and in general, in the Emilia-Romagna Region.

SPIRITS OF OLYMPIA. Athletes and context in the images of PARITANI
edited by Marco Musmeci
Opening Saturday, May 25, 9 p.m., in the presence of PARITANI
Saturday, May 25 to Saturday, June 8, 2024
Hours: every evening, 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. - open upon request, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
MUNICIPALITY OF MONTEGRIDOLFO, Sala Clementina, via Roma - Montegridolfo (RN)
Free admission
For information: Municipality of Montegridolfo, tel. 0541.855054, comune@montegridolfo.eu