Luigi Ghirri's photos of Italy in Miniature park published in new book

A new book titled "Italia in Miniatura – Luigi Ghirri & Ivo Rambaldi" has been published by MACK, London, 2024 (160 pages, €65, ISBN 9781915743305). It presents Ghirri's entire "In scala" series, expanded with many unpublished images. The park Italia in Miniatura, opened in 1970 in Rimini, was founded by Ivo Rambaldi after visiting Swissminiatur in Melide in 1968. It features 50 miniature Italian monuments on 20,000 square meters. Ghirri photographed the park repeatedly from the late 1970s to mid-1980s, exploring illusion, the gap between reality and representation, artificial nature, tourism, and consumerism. The book is curated by Ilaria Campioli, Joan Fontcuberta, and Matteo Guidi. It includes archival materials from Rambaldi: maps, sketches, and collages used for building the models. The volume highlights the analogy between miniatures and photography as "reduced reproductions of reality."