The aim of this exhibition is to transmit to the broader international public the great Italian tradition of and passion for mountain culture and mountaineering, as a means of understanding the mountain environment and the values it embodies, the importance of environmental awareness when entering a natural habitat and the attention Italy as a country pays to protecting ecosystems.
With all these objectives in mind, the exhibition “Italian Routes. Mountains, mountaineering, climate change”, designed, developed and curated by landscape photographer Fabiano Ventura and promoted by the Foreign Ministry, will be hitting the road for a two-year World tour of Asia, Europe and the Americas. After opening on 20 May 2021, at the “Museum of Fine Arts of Ho Chi Minh City” in Vietnam, the exhibition has now reached Tel Aviv, thanks to the efforts of the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute there, where it will remain from 20 December 2021 to 16 January 2022, at the FAAB – French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, at the Sde Boqer Campus of BGU.
The central part of the exhibition, dedicated to “Italian Mountains”, has been conceived as an ideal journey from the Gran Paradiso massif across the entire Alpine arc – from west to east – including the massifs of Monte Bianco, Monte Rosa and Cervino, Bernina, Ortles-Cevedale and Adamello, then moving to the eastwards to the Dolomites and the Julian Alps. The Italian route ends with a ninth stage dedicated to the main Apennine massif of the Gran Sasso.
Each of the nine mountain massifs is represented by large-format photographs depicting the evocative landscapes and by comparative historical and contemporary images, which highlight the evolution of the glaciers, stressing the effects of climate change on the mountain landscape.
The final section of the exhibition, “A glimpse of the world”, extends the perspective to the Earth’s most important mountain ranges, underlining the continuity of mountain culture on a global level. Beauty, awareness and respect for the environment are the key themes that mountaineering culture has developed, starting from the Alps and then extending worldwide over the years.
The photography section is accompanied by videos made during the expeditions and some historical and modern mountaineering equipment.
