Maurizio Galimberti's Polaroid Mosaics Commemorate 1974 Piazza della Loggia Bombing

Italian photographer Maurizio Galimberti (born 1956 in Como) has created a series of Polaroid mosaic works commemorating the 1974 Piazza della Loggia bombing in Brescia, which killed eight and wounded 102. The exhibition, organized by Fondazione Brescia Musei, is part of the Brescia Photo Festival 2024 and is held at the Museo di Santa Giulia alongside a show by Franco Fontana. Galimberti's signature style involves recycling existing images—photographs, posters, newspapers, and archival documents—into ready-made Polaroid collages, a method he describes as "rewriting what another has already done" (citing Italo Calvino) and self-identifies as a "Futurist Duchampian." The 40-piece series draws on original photographs by Pietro Gino Barbieri, Silvano Cinelli, Renato Corsini, and Eugenio Ferrari, sourced from the Archivio di Casa della Memoria, Archivio Storico Silvano Cinelli, and Archivio Corsini/Ferrari. Galimberti's post-production process involves manually altering Polaroid development with a stick, creating random chromatic alterations that resemble explosions, adding emotional rhythm to the black-and-white compositions. The artist deliberately avoids perfection, stating, "Long live imperfect photography." The exhibition aims to make the historical event accessible to younger generations who did not experience it firsthand.