Prague. A suitcase purchased by photographer Marcello Mencarini from a Roman second-hand dealer in the 1980s. An “object retrouvé” that has unveiled a precious treasure: about 500 negatives in black and white, almost all 6×6 and some 35mm, with images taken from the mid-50s to the early 60s, the era of Dolce Vita . The author, probably a refined photographer of the time, was able to capture glimpses of cinema stars’ and artist’s lives who were moving on the international stage of the city of Rome, but also highlights of intense Capitoline cultural and political life. The negatives, restored and catalogued, offer unpublished images of Sophia Loren, Charlie Chaplin, Audrey Hepburn, Federico Fellini, Anna Magnani, Juliette Gréco, Igor Stravinsky, Marcello Mastroianni, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and many others. 27 photographs of different sizes will be exhibited in Prague, leading visitors through the environments of the Dolce Vita inside the rooms of the Baroque Chapel of the Italian Institute of Culture. The exhibition “La valigia romana” (The Roman Suitcase) curated by Alessia Locatelli and Marcello Mencarini, will remain open to the public, with free admission, from October 12 to 31. The event is part of the series of initiatives promoted by the Italian Cultural Institute of Prague on the occasion of the 18th edition of the “Italian Language Week in the World” held under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic. (9Colonne)
