20 July – 10 September 2024
They lived their fate like a dream
Without knowing who they were or what they were
Perhaps the same thing happens to us
J.L Borges, Elogio de la sombra, 1969
1978. After a year of photojournalism in the heart of the civil war shaking the Tibesti province in northern Chad, Ornella Tondini sought a place of transition before returning to Rome.
This place is Filicudi. The journalist stays here for more than two years with her husband, Lionel Cousin. She lives in tune with the island, with the harshness of its land, but also discovers the purity of its light, and most importantly, its inhabitants. It was towards them, the people of Filicudi, that Ornella Tondini directs the lens of her Leica. She photographs them posed with the tripod and as they prefer to be depicted.
“My gaze was not directed towards the islanders as such. Their stories, their mysterious, ambiguous, and outrageous tales profoundly affected and marked me, but above all, it was their eyes facing the camera with extraordinary pride that struck me. With the Filicudari, I found myself in front of people who are outside of time, yet know its tyrannies and secrets better than anyone else. This familiarity with destiny – with judgment, with the parable – comes from accepting it fully. They are all protagonists.”
2024. Ornella Tondini, who discovered Filicudi in 1966, is celebrating her eightieth birthday today. With this exhibition, she wishes to pay homage to the protagonists of her memory.
Ornella Tondini. An art historian and student of Giulio Carlo Argan, she worked at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome. Subsequently, she became a photojournalist in various countries around the world and an editor at L’Autre Journal in Paris. She is the author of several publications, including Pour le Tchad (1978) and Toscane, le balcon de la vie (1991). She currently lives and produces wine in Montalcino.
