Acrobati, fachiri e luna park - Acrobats, fire-eaters and funfairs

A trip down memory lane in Rome through the photographs of Annabella Rossi, a pioneer of anthropology and ethnography in the second half of the 20th century, who documented marginalised communities and subaltern cultures with rare sensitivity.

The free exhibition held at the Casa della Pop Art - La Vaccheria is curated by Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio Immateriale - Central Institute for Intangible Heritage that since 2017 has been studying and digitising the anthropologist’s photographic archives, which are co-managed with MuCiv - Museo delle Civiltà. It unveils for the first time an exceptional collection of photographs taken together with her friend and photographer Rosita Pedretti between 1957 and 1960. The lens focuses on the magical world of popular entertainment in the post-war Roman suburbs, at the time a border zone between the countryside and the city, showing us the microcosm of permanent circuses, suburban arenas and funfairs.

Reproduced in large format on fabric and suspended at varying heights, the photographs reveal their finest details, engaging in a dialogue with Francesco De Melis’s video installation “Contrappunti Periferia”, which reworks archival material into a rhythmic counterpoint between the still image and the temporal dimension of movement. Thanks to a network of institutional collaborations (including the Luce Historical Archive and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia), the exhibition includes rare audiovisual materials, such as vintage newsreels and Giorgio Turi’s film “Il Fachiro” (1963) about the fakir Pietro Santolamazza.