The exhibition “Maurizio Buscarino – Figures in the Field of Vision: A Retrospective of an Iconic Theater Photographer” is a new project hosted at the Sale d’Arte in Alessandria, Italy, showcasing the career of Maurizio Buscarino, one of the most significant theater photographers internationally, through his powerful portraiture. The exhibition will run from February 27 to June 8, featuring over ninety works created from 1975 to the present, selected and printed by the artist himself, under the curation of Giovanna Calvenzi.
Born in Bergamo in 1944, Buscarino’s journey into theater began in 1973 with his encounter with “La casa el padre” from the Norwegian company Odin Teatret. This meeting marked the start of a fifty-year career that has taken him across Italy, Europe, and the world, documenting and narrating theater in all its forms. He has collaborated with renowned actors, directors, and choreographers such as Tadeusz Kantor, Jerzy Grotowski, Eimuntas Nekrosius, Dario Fo, and Vladimir Vasiliev. His travels even led him to Japan, where he created a report on Jusaburo Tsujimura, a prominent figure in Bunraku, the Japanese puppet theater.
Attuned to the contemporary world around him, Buscarino has also focused on the experiences of marginalized theaters, research, and experimental theaters, including those in prisons in Volterra, Lodi, Milan, Foggia, Bologna, and Palermo.
Buscarino’s work transcends mere documentation of theatrical events; it is an exploration of human figures and conditions, the concepts of fiction and reality, and the dynamics between dominant and marginalized cultures. Over time, his archive has become a significant document of the cultural landscape of the late 20th century, viewed through his lens of the theater—a space where something happens, which, along with his writings, represents his worldview. Buscarino reflects:
“In theater, I have encountered many tribes, allies or at war with each other, some unaware of the existence of others. And then shamans, women, small and large warriors, madmen, wise ones, cunning, sick, whiskey sellers, preachers, prisoners, solitary beings, the dying, gentle beings, defenseless beings, certain pale faces, even some vile beings, each with their gaze: directed at me or lowered, smiling or secretive, taken elsewhere or absent, grim or transparent, mad or desperate. It is this gaze that I seek to capture, for a moment, when the peak of things closes, to grasp a hold, a certainty.
For me, photographs are the pressure of the gaze, the only possibility of contact.”
A section of the exhibition, featuring 37 works, is dedicated to the Laboratorio Lirico di Alessandria, an ambitious project that from 1980 to 1992 elevated lyrical performance to a high-quality level, gaining international resonance. Maurizio Buscarino witnessed all editions of the Laboratorio, and the historic photographs are now being presented to the public once again. Giovanna Calvenzi, the curator, notes: “To define him merely as a ‘theater photographer’ is almost reductive. However, image after image, it becomes increasingly clear that Buscarino is neither a mere witness nor an interpreter of the staging but one of the protagonists sharing the narrative space, attentive to capturing the faces, gazes, and gestures of his fellow workers. The precious documentation we can now revisit is a gift that Buscarino’s mastery offers to the city of Alessandria, which for nearly thirteen years has welcomed a music laboratory, unique in Italy.”
Accompanying this section is the catalog “Melodramma in Laboratorio, 1980-1992,” featuring texts by Franco Ferrari, Maurizio Buscarino, and Giovanna Calvenzi, with graphic design by Giorgio Annone/LineLab.
The exhibition is organized by ASM Costruire Insieme and the City of Alessandria, in collaboration with Alexala, the local tourism agency of the Province of Alessandria, for regional promotion. The exhibition is also supported by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Alessandria.
Photo credits: The photographs are the property of the gallery. Photos by Federico Buscarino. On the cover: Maurizio Buscarino, Else Marie Laukvik, Milano 1975