Agnès Varda’s Italy

As a follow-up to the exhibition Agnès Varda's Paris , presented in late February at the Villa Medici in Rome in collaboration with the Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris and Paris Musées, the exhibition Agnès Varda's Italy , co-produced by the Institut pour la photographie, sheds light on the close ties between Agnès Varda and Italy through a selection of previously unpublished photographs taken by the artist during two trips to Italy in 1959 and 1963.

Agnès Varda was then known as a theater photographer and took on numerous assignments for the press in France and Europe. In 1959, she traveled through Venice and the surrounding region scouting locations for "La Mélangite" (or "Valentin's Loves"), a film she ultimately did not direct. Her photographs reflect her discovery of Italy and her taste for the picturesque. Her views of Venice and its inhabitants are true to her state of mind. In addition to her spontaneous approach to photography, she was drawn to graphic scenes composed of black and white. At the Villa della Torre, near Verona, she was captivated by the materials and the strangeness of the sculptures.

In May 1963, the French magazine Realities commissioned him to paint a portrait of Luchino Visconti, who had just won the Palme d'Or for his film The Leopard . She flies to Rome with three cameras. Contact sheets and color photographs document this photo shoot with the man the press dubbed the "the taciturn prince of Italian cinema". At the same time, Jean-Luc Godard directed Contempt at Titanus Studios. Varda visited the set and took photos of her friend directing Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, and Michel Piccoli.

About forty vintage prints and documents from Agnès Varda’s personal archives and the collection deposited at the Hauts-de-France Institut pour la photographie shed light for the first time on Agnès Varda’s relationship with Italy.

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↘︎ Curating: Carole Sandrin, curator of the photographic archives at the Institut pour la photographie

↘︎ Acknowledgments and Thanks: An exhibition co-produced by the Institut pour la photographie and the Villa Medici, French Academy in Rome, based on the photographic collection and archives of the Agnès Varda Estate. In collaboration with Rosalie Varda.