La misura dell'Occidente

Giovanni Chiaramonte
Born in Varese in 1948 of parents from Gela in Sicily, Giovanni Chiaramonte began his activity as a photographer at the end of the 1960s, working for a revival of the figurative form after the abstract and informal season of certain trends in Pop Art and Conceptual Art of the XXth century. He has always devoted his attention to the relationship between place and destiny in Western civilization, in the name of the infinite that opens in the instantaneous time of photography. His most important works include: Giardini e paesaggi, 1983; Terra del ritorno, 1989; Penisola delle figure, 1993; Westwards, 1996-2013; Milan. Rings of the Middle City, 2000; Dolce è la luce, 2003; Like an Enigma_Venice, 2006: Hidden in perspective, 2007; In Berlin, 2009; L’altro_Nei volti nei luoghi, 2010-2011; E.I.A.E. – Et In Arcadia Ego, 2012; Interno perduto, 2012; Piccola creazione, 2013; Jerusalem, 2014; La misura dell'Occidente, with Alvaro Siza, 2015-2018, The Evolving European City with Giuseppe Marinoni, 2015; Ultima Sicilia, 2016; Salvare l’ora, 2018; Verso Gerusalemme, 2019. Since 1974 he has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, at the Milan Triennale in 2000, 2009, 2011 and at the Venice Biennale in 1992, 1993, 1997, 2004, 2013. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary degree in Architecture by the University of Palermo. In 2010 he exhibited Hidden in Perspective at the Shangai Expo. In 2021 he was elected a member of the Accademia di San Luca. He has founded and directed photography series for various Italian publishers. He teaches Theory and History of Photography at the Free University IULM in Milan.

Àlvaro Siza
(Matosinhos, 1933) Considered today one of the greatest international architects, he graduated from the Higher School of Fine Arts in Porto in 1955, and later worked in Fernando Tavora's studio. At the end of the 1950s he opened his own studio and designed the Tea House in Leça da Palmeira. From the middle of the following decade he became a university professor in many international universities, which he would then leave to devote himself only to the chair of Construction at the University of Porto. His architectural works can be found in Portugal, Spain, Holland, Germany, United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. Numerous his publications and exhibitions. In October 2014 he was awarded the Mies van der Rohe Crown Hall Prize.