Signed; Mimmo Jodice - Gibellina - 1982

Exceptionally signed copy on the title page by Mimmo Jodice (1934 - 2025), unique and unattainable in a signed copy. 120 pages and 48 full-page black-and-white photographs printed on the recto only, text in Italian by Ludovico Corrao, mayor of Gibellina; by Pierluigi Nicolin and Arturo Carlo Quintavalle. Illustrated soft cover.

After the 1968 earthquake, the mayor of Gibellina, Ludovico Corrao, wanted to rebuild a new town near the old one by developing an urban project of a museum-city, and renowned artists such as Renato Guttuso, Mimmo Paladino, Joseph Beuys, and Alberto Burri, among others, became involved by donating their works. Alberto Burri created the “Cretto,” which covers the ruins of the old village with a concrete sheet while preserving the lines of the streets and alleys through which one can move. It is a work that was recently restored because it had been damaged by the weather.

Mimmo Jodice photographed the village ruins from a surrounding hill, ruins that have today disappeared completely, as well as the provisional shacks and the construction sites of this new city and the works of art that had been planned.

It should be noted that the site of Gibellina, independently of Burri's Cretto or in connection with this work, has attracted many photographers. In 1990 Guido Guidi, Mimmo Jodice and Giovanni Chiaramonte published 'Gibellina, Utopia concreta', Motta ed., offered here at auction, then Olivo Barbieri in 2016 with 'Gibellina and other disease' (D. Montanari), then in 2018 after the restoration of the work, Oliviero Toscani with Il Cretto di Burri also offered here at auction as well as Massimo Siragusa with 'Il Cretto grande' (Poscart ed.).

Mimmo Jodice is one of the greatest Italian photographers of the 20th century and has gained international recognition almost worldwide. A self-taught photographer born in 1934 in Naples, he began his artistic activity in the mid-1960s with visual experimentation and carried out research into cuts and collage of images, then in the 1970s evolved toward social denunciation linked to the miserable living conditions of the population of the city of Naples, vibrant and popular, and in the 1980s toward an evocative silence of the metaphysical landscape and Mediterranean archaeology, with a creative language that reflects on time, light and the very act of seeing. Mimmo Jodice has presented his work in France on several occasions, notably within the framework of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles as well as during a retrospective at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris in 2010, which led to the publication of an important catalogue.

Book from my personal collection, in excellent condition 50 years after its publication, given its perfect quality of manufacture (stitched signatures, sturdy binding). Very slight yellowing of the dust jacket (see photo), the book has been kept with the greatest care. Shipping is securely packaged and international tracking is guaranteed.

0.6 kg excluding packaging