The exhibition presents some of the most important pictures produced in Italy and Spain following their respective post-war periods and up till the end of the nineteen-sixties. It shows the possible interrelations in terms of affinity or confrontation between the two countries, which, despite having suffered different wars, found themselves in similar situations. These were the years of reconstruction and of a shift from a farming economy towards industrial development.

In Italy, a critical movement grew up which was known as neo-realism and was backed up by literature, photography and the cinema. The origins of neo-realism can be found in the North-American social documentary of the period between the wars, in which the essence of the message was directly tied to the contemplation of reality. 

The harsh, high-contrast aesthetic reflected everyday things with a style that mixed film and reportage and that captivated the generations after 1945 because of the formal and aesthetic values it brought with it.

In Spain, the social situation was as tough as in Italy or worse, but newspapers couldn't show it because it was watched over by the regime, which meant it remained hidden. A large part of our photographers had links with photographic associations, who practised a style of photography closely tied to pictorialism. Even so, photographers appeared who wouldn't submit to this aesthetic, undoubtedly influenced by Italian neo-realist cinema.

The photographers represented here are not the only ones there were; our wish has been to approach Zavattini's definition: 'Neo-realism is nothing, just an idea, a point of view, a moral attitude.'

With the collaboration of Agrolimen