Luigi Ghirri. Polaroid ’79–’83: A New Look at the Master of Italian Photography at Centro Pecci

From 22 November 2025 to 10 May 2026, the Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato presents a truly unique exhibition: Polaroid ’79–’83, curated by Chiara Agradi and Stefano Collicelli Cagol, with a display designed by Ibrahim Kombarji.

Luigi Ghirri,  Amsterdam, 1980, Courtesy eredi di Luigi Ghirri

This is the first institutional exhibition in Italy entirely dedicated to the Polaroid work of the artist who more than anyone else transformed the visual imagination of late 20th-century photography.

Ghirri—an essential and much-loved figure—has always moved in a space that blends conceptual rigor with emotional immediacy. In his images, everyday objects, layered landscapes, and anonymous figures become fragments of a world he observes with poetic precision, revealing what often remains invisible even as it lies before our eyes. The Polaroids he shot between 1979 and 1983 amplify this dual nature: on one side, a reflection on the image and its rules; on the other, the instinctive, fragile, instantaneous gesture of instant photography.

The more than one hundred Polaroids selected for the exhibition trace the evolution of a surprisingly experimental phase. During those years, Polaroid provided Ghirri with a generous supply of film and cameras, even inviting him to Amsterdam to test the extraordinary 20x24 Instant Land Camera, capable of producing extra-large photographs in just over a minute. In these images—small or monumental, intimate or unpredictable—an unexpected Ghirri emerges: less controlled, more playful, fascinated by the immediacy of seeing the result of the shot.

Luigi Ghirri, Alto Adige, 1980, Courtesy eredi di Luigi Ghirri

Alongside the photographs taken in the Netherlands, Ghirri brought with him objects collected in his native Emilia: postcards, small souvenirs, domestic elements that reconstruct elsewhere a familiar mental landscape. Even far from home, he builds suspended micro-worlds where memory and assemblage blend with ease.

The exhibition speaks directly to younger visitors: in an era when instant images are the norm—between smartphones, filters, and constant sharing—the universe of Polaroid becomes an opportunity to reflect on the materiality of photography, on the time of waiting, on the manual construction of an image. It opens an unexpected dialogue between analogue and digital.

Centro Pecci Prato, Luigi Ghirri Polaroid 79-83, ph Andrea Rossetti

Polaroid ’79–’83 fits into the broader program of Centro Pecci, which over the years has hosted major monographic exhibitions dedicated to leading figures of international contemporary art. The strength of this exhibition lies precisely in revealing a lesser-known Ghirri—playful, experimental—allowing even general audiences, already familiar with his iconic works, to discover a chapter that has often remained in the background.

Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci

Viale della Repubblica 277, 59100, Prato

Date

21 novembre – 10 maggio 2026