Rosa Foschi

Rosa Foschi was born in 1943 in Urbino where she graduated from the “Senior Course in Advertising Graphics” directed by Albe Steiner. After that, having moved to Milan, she worked in advertising, film and photography. In Rome (where she lives and works), she attended the “Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia” and in 1967-71 made various 35 mm, black-and-white and colour, animated drawing shorts produced by “Corona Cinematografica” owned by E. Gagliardo, obtaining awards from the Ministry of Entertainment and also taking part in the festivals of Oberhausen, Annecy and the “Festival dei Popoli” in Florence. In 2000, after salvaging some of these films, they were presented at the Goethe Institut in Rome. Her work on drawing and film action had to be coordinated with the artist’s activity as a photographer, which would bring her to play a leading role in many exhibitions in Italy. In the photographic sphere, she collaborated and took part in exhibitions organized by CRAF (Centre of Photographic Research and Archiving). In 1983 together with Luca Patella she made Arie e Polle a book-folder with seven poems (and four engravings by Patella). Her first solo exhibition dates from 1986, at Galleria Il Salotto in Como, followed by Den Tijd in Antwerp in 1990 and the Museo Laboratorio dell’Arte Contemporanea at “La Sapienza” University of Rome in 1999, with the exhibition Esterno Interno Fuori, curated by Claudio Crescentini. Among the group exhibitions, mainly in Italy, between the 1980s and 90s we can quote: Liber, pratica internazionale del libro d’artista, Palazzo Verdi, Verona (1980); Il gioco dell’arte, Galleria Il Salotto, Como (1987); Far libro e pagine d’artista in Italia, Biblioteca Centrale, Florence (1989); Pagine e dintorni, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Gallarate (1991); Una foto per un museo, MIFAV, Tor Vergata University of Rome (1994); Trasparenze. Rassegna Internazionale di Fotografia, Cassero del Casale, Grosseto (1995); Occasioni di mito: arte e poesia, Galleria Fitzcarraldo, Genoa; Giovani & Sconosciuti – aspetti della nuova fotografia italiana, curated by Sabrina Zanner and Italo Zanner (cat. Motta-Craf, 1997); Contaminazioni. Fotografia nell’arte, arte nella fotografia, Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea La Sapienza, Rome (1997); Poesia totale 1897-1997. Dal colpo di dadi alla poesia visuale, Palazzo della Ragione, Musei Civici, Mantua (1998); followed more recently by the Il paesaggio italiano in Fotografia 1950-2000, curated by Walter Liva, Provincial exhibition halls, Pordenone (2010). The artist has also made 30 book-works, in single copy, using different formats and techniques, and illustrated the collection of poems: P. Valesio, Anniversari, ed. Il Quaderno del Bardo, 1999. Some of these book-works are found in private and public art collections, amongst which: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris and Archivio della Nuova Scrittura, P. Della Grazia, Milan. Again, among the recent photography exhibitions we may remember: La magia della polaroid: gli autori italiani interpretano il mito, Centro Italiano della Fotografia d’autore, Bibbiena, Arezzo (2009); Fotografia e ritratto. A venti anni dalla mostra “Io e il suo doppio”, Galleria Civica d’Arte Celso e Giovanni Costantini, Castions di Zoppola, Pordenone (2015); Donne & Fotografia, Chiesa di San Francesco, Udine (2017-2018); and L’immediatezza del presente, Chiesa San Lorenzo, San Vito al Tagliamento (2018). Her latest solo exhibition is at Galleria Il Ponte, Rosa Foschi. polaroid ROSA & film FOSCHI, 2019.