Tina Modotti Exhibition Opening Hours - Bologna:

From Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM (last entry at 7:00 PM)

Special Openings:

• December 8, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 2024: 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM (last entry at 7:00 PM)
• December 31, 2024: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM (last entry at 2:00 PM)
• January 1, 2025: 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM (last entry at 7:00 PM)
• January 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 2025: 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM (last entry at 7:00 PM)
• February 8, 2025: 10:00 AM to midnight (last entry at 11:00 PM)

Scheduled Closures (All Day):

• December 23, 24, and 25, 2024

Ticket Prices - Tina Modotti Exhibition Bologna:

• Full price: €16
• Reduced price: €14*
  *Ages 6 to under 18, FrecciaRossa train travelers, over 65 with ID, university students under 26 with valid student card, military personnel with ID, licensed tour guides, registered journalists with press card, companions of people with disabilities, ICOM and AICS Bologna members with valid card, State Property Agency employees with badge, ticket holders for other exhibitions at Palazzo Pallavicini
• Bologna Welcome Card, Bologna Congress, and Card Cultura holders: €12
• University Thursday: €12 (with valid student ID)
• Disabled visitors: €12 (with valid certification)*
  *Car permits are not accepted
• Free admission: Children under 6 years old and Visitors with INPS-issued Disability Card*
• Groups: €12 per person (min. 10 – max. 25 people; 1 free companion)*
  *Reservation required at info@palazzopallavicini.com; headphones are mandatory.
• Schools: €5 per student*
  *Applicable for students from kindergarten to high school (2 free companions per class; reservation required at info@palazzopallavicini.com; headphones are mandatory).
• Open Ticket: €18*
• *Ticket with flexible entry date and time, valid until the end of the exhibition.
• Combined Ticket - Ligabue & Tina Modotti Exhibition: €26*
• *Valid for same-day use.

Services:

• Small pets allowed only in carriers or held in arms.
• Free, unsupervised coat rack, subject to availability.

Important Notices:

• Access for non-ambulant individuals or wheelchair users (non-electric) is via a tracked stairlift system, Jolly Ramp D3000010 by TGR, with a weight limit of 140 kg (combined weight of person and wheelchair; responsibility of the visitor). It covers two flights of stairs, totaling 38 steps. Full specifications are available at the following link: https://tgr.it/prodotto/jolly-ramp-montascale-mobile-a-cingoli/

Exhibition and Event Contacts - Palazzo Pallavicini:

• Email: info@palazzopallavicini.com
• Phone: +39 3313471504

Press Office and Social Media - Digital Suits:

• Email: press@digitalsuits.it, info@digitalsuits.it
• Phone: +39 3348689589

Independent, free, modern: Tina Modotti combined her love for art and truth with her political fervor, which guided her choices and actions as an activist, driven by the desire to contribute to the creation of a better world. Constantly engaging with artists and intellectuals during the evolution of her expressive periods, Modotti developed a photographic language with an intimate tone, capable of exploring the contradictions of reality to reveal its secret lyricism. The entirety of the photographs displayed in the exhibition unveils, from the very beginning, a new way of observing reality, attuned to the fleetingness of its moments. The journey through the exhibition halls invites visitors to engage in a dialogue with their own personal perception of time: sometimes still and astonished, at other times fleeting and elusive.

What strongly emerges is a happy and free Tina (happy because she is free), as she herself wrote to Weston in April 1925: a woman with a lively intellect and a remarkable capacity for introspection, whose multifaceted nature influenced her choices. Divided into six sections, the exhibition aims to show the public the countless facets of a photographer skilled in setting aside aesthetics to focus on ethics. She developed an eloquent and personal visual code, shaped and evolved in a brief period yet capable of leaving an indelible mark on the historical and photographic heritage of the first half of the 20th century. The constant dialogue with Edward Weston's photographs, reflecting a rich exchange of letters between the two artists, reveals Tina's obsession with photographic quality and her reiterated declaration in 1929 to record life objectively in all its aspects. Many biographical photographs, imbued with narrative power, feature the faces of notable personalities of the time and the artistic dimension in which Modotti immersed her soul, finding inspiration: her mentor Edward Weston, artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, actress Dolores del Rio, revolutionary journalist Julio Antonio Mella, and politician Vittorio Vidali.

Driven by passionate and sincere activism, Tina used photography as an extension of her vision—a tool for investigation and social critique, with an expressive coherence that transcended art, turning it into a gift for life itself. This life, as she said, constantly struggled to dominate art. A true metamorphosis of life into art finds its photographic translation in her famous calla lilies and delicate geometries, which Tina sought to abstract to preserve them in memory, stripping away superfluous elements to reach, fervently, the core of emotion. The intensity of Tina's passion is evident in the faces and hands of the Mexican people, central to an entire section, bearing witness to a desire for change and a necessary awakening that, in her vision, become icons of the potential for social redemption. Life, art, and revolution are the key themes of her photographs that capture symbols of class struggle, workers, women of the people, gatherings, and details. Particularly striking are the snapshots of the women of Tehuantepec, whose natural quick pace reflects Tina's quest to find a new truth and poetic sense in an ancient society, which for her becomes an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration. Austere in this sense are the gazes of children, seemingly penetrating the lens in an attempt to reach the soul of the photographer.

The exhibition concludes with a selection of portraits of Tina, including some she called immortal, taken by Edward Weston. Observing them, one hears the echo of Federico Marin's words, who described her as “a mysterious beauty, devoid of vulgarity [...], but not cheerful, rather austere, terribly austere. Not melancholic, nor tragic.” Fascination and mystery remain intact, as her words in letters, her unique gaze, and her daring experimentation place Tina Modotti among the greatest interpreters of the human condition, captured in its infinite facets. The immersive nature of her photographs, stemming from an innate empathy for her subjects, becomes a voice capable of narrating to the viewer the infinite variety of the world and, simultaneously, its universality.

Texts and insights curated by:
Francesca Bogliolo.

Archive and photographs courtesy of:
Comitato Tina Modotti

Organized by:
Pallavicini Srl by Chiara Campagnoli, Deborah Petroni, and Rubens Fogacci

The catalog, exclusively on sale at Palazzo Pallavicini, is published by:
Forum Società Editrice Universitaria Udinese