Exhibitions

Christof Klute
La Tourette, Beichtstuhl I - II, Éveux 
2023 
Pigment print 
49.5 × 39.5 cm

Mindscape Christof Klute

Mindscape - Christof Klute is the twenty-second exhibition organized by the Rolla Foundation. On this occasion, the Foundation is presenting twenty-nine works by the German photographer from the private collection of Philip and Rosella Rolla, focusing on places of reflection and ideas. These are themes close to Klute, who studied philosophy, theology, and literature before turning to photography.

Free entry
by appointment
 

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Albert Renger-Patzsch, Ruth Hallensleben, a dialogue

Albert Renger-Patzsch, Ruth Hallensleben, a dialogue is the twentieth-first exhibition held in the ex-kindergarten of Bruzella, home of the Rolla Foundation.

The forty photographs, taken between the 1920s and the 1960s and belonging to the Rolla collection, compare two previously presented authors with a new reading.


Both were Germans, contemporaries, and worked predominantly in the same field, industrial photography.
Albert Renger-Patzsch enjoys international fame, Ruth Hallensleben is yet to be discovered. The reasons are different, starting with the fact that the former also developed personal research, the latter almost always worked on commission. In the introductory text of the catalog, Urs Stahel also examines other factors, social conditioning, and emphasizes that: In this selection, there are hardly any differences in attitude or quality. Although here, too, it is often a question of commissioned versus free photography.

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where I came from, 1972 printed in 2022
gelatin silver print on baryta paper
12.6 x 19.2 cm

Philip Rolla - where I came from

where I came from, the twentieth exhibition organized by the Rolla Foundation, is a tribute to its founder. A particular exhibition born from a long reflection by Philip Rolla on himself and on his past. These years, marked by illness and isolation led Philip to review those papers that we all accumulate during our lives. Among many memories and surprises he found negatives dating back to 1972. Shots of his California, the places where he spent his childhood and to which many memories are linked. Places that had already changed in 1972, mostly worn out by time and neglect, but which, for him, contain an unchanged dignity to remember.

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John Hilliard
Raising the camera towards her familiar profile, he prepared to release the shutter, 1977

Look Twice - John Hilliard, Doug and Mike Starn

The nineteenth exhibition at the Rolla Foundation is Look Twice, featuring the English artist John Hilliard and the Americans Doug and Mike Starn

The exhibition consists of twelve works of different formats, arranged in the spaces of the former Kindergarten in a delicate and vibrant dialogue. The works belong to the private collection of Rosella and Philip Rolla. 
 

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Hiroshi Sugimoto
Photograph from the series Time Exposed, 1991

Hiroshi Sugimoto - with your back to the heart

The eighteenth Rolla Foundation exhibition features the famous Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto (Tokyo, 1948) and his remarkable Seascapes. Active since the mid-1970s, he took the first picture in the seascape series in 1980 and continues to photograph seas and skies the world over.

Forty years after that first photograph, Philip and Rosella Rolla are displaying a portfolio from their collection entitled Time Exposed, comprising fifty seascapes selected by Sugimoto and printed in 1991.

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Willi Moegle
Untitled (2050 Porzellanfabrik Arzberg, design Heinrich Löffelhaedt), 1960
22.6 x 16.2 cm

Willi Moegle - DO NOT DROP

For the 11th Biennale dell’immagine, Bi11 CRASH, twenty-nine works by the German photographer Willi Moegle belonging to the private collection of Rosella and Philip Rolla were selected for the exhibition DO NOT DROP. The images chosen are perfect compositions of fragile porcelain representing modern German industrial products made during the ‘50s and ‘60s of the 20th century

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Lawrence Carroll
Sunday Studio Road 1, 2019
archival ink jet print
34.75 x 31.75 cm

Lawrence Carroll - Photographs

Lawrence Carroll - Photographs is the sixteenth exhibition held in the ex-kindergarten of Bruzella, home of the Rolla Foundation.

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Albert Renger-Patzsch
The Chemical Factory öeunawerke in Merseburg, 1930s
vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 12.3

Factory

Factory is the fifteenth exhibition held in the ex-kindergarten of Bruzella, home of the Rolla Foundation. The photographs are from the private collection of Rosella and Philip Rolla. The exhibition is dedicated to man that does things properly.

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Lee Friedlander
Cody Wyoming, 2000
gelatin silver print
37.6 x 37.2 cm

American Dream

"American Dream" was used for the first time by American historian James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America, published in 1931. In the middle of the so-called Great Depression he used this expression to describe the complex beliefs, religious promises, and the political and social expectations of the American people.

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It

Charles Jones
Turnip, 1900 ca
vintage gold toned gelatin silver print
16.5 x 22 cm

It

It is the thirteenth exhibition held in the ex-kindergarten of Bruzella, home of the Rolla Foundation. The photographs are from the private collection of Rosella and Philip Rolla.

The exhibition, consisting of twenty-six photographs, is inspired by the writings of John Szarkowski, particularly from his book The Photographer’s Eye.

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Maureen Gallace
June, 2004
oil on panel
28 × 30.5 cm

Luisa Lambri - Maureen Gallace

Luisa Lambri - Maureen Gallace is the twelfth exhibition held in the ex-kindergarten of Bruzella, home of the Rolla Foundation.
The photographs, paintings and drawing are from the private collection of Rosella and Philip Rolla who on this occasion are exhibiting four photographs by Luisa Lambri, and four paintings and a drawing by Maureen Gallace.

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Miroslav Tichý 
Untitled, 1960-85
vintage gelatin silver print
12.9 x 8.9 cm

Miroslav Tichý

Miroslav Tichý is the eleventh exhibition held in the ex-kindergarten of Bruzella, home of the Rolla Foundation. The works are from the private collection of Rosella and Philip Rolla and presents on this occasion 40 photographs and 5 drawings.

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John Hilliard
Four Viwes in May, 2004
Photo on museum board
26.7 x 26.7 cm

Trees

The tenth event proposed by Rolla Foundation, which in 2015 celebrates its fifth year of activity, is a thematic exhibition dedicated to the trees.

Works in the exhibition:
35 images taken between 1910 and 2013

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Giuseppe Chietera
senza titolo, 2013-14
c-print
37.8 x 47.8 cm

Visioni Parallele / Zone Condivise

The Rolla Foundation and the Como Chamber of Commerce present Visioni Parallele a project realized within «Viavai – Contrabbando culturale Svizzera-Lombardia», a cultural exchange program between Switzerland and Lombardy initiated by the Swiss Art Council Pro Helvetia in partnership with the Cantons of Ticino and Valais, the City of Zürich, the Ernst Göhner Foundation, and with the support of the Art Councils of the Lombardy Region and of the City of Milan.
www.viavai-cultura.net

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Fabio Tasca
senza titolo, 2013-2014
c-print
24.8 x 24.8 cm

Visioni Parallele / Litoranee Sparse

The Rolla Foundation and the Como Chamber of Commerce present Visioni Parallele a project realized within «Viavai – Contrabbando culturale Svizzera-Lombardia», a cultural exchange program between Switzerland and Lombardy initiated by the Swiss Art Council Pro Helvetia in partnership with the Cantons of Ticino and Valais, the City of Zürich, the Ernst Göhner Foundation, and with the support of the Art Councils of the Lombardy Region and of the City of Milan.
www.viavai-cultura.net
 

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Edward Weston
Rock Erosion, Point Lobos, 1929
vintage gelatin silver print
19 x 24 cm

Edward Weston

The eighth event proposed by the Rolla Foundation is an exhibition dedicated to the great American photographer Edward Weston (1886, Illinois - 1958 California).

Through 22 photographs from their collection, Philip and Rosella Rolla propose a short journey through the “Westonian vision”.

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Thomas Struth
Bernardstrasse 2, 1991
gelatin silver print
37.8 x 47.9 cm

Urban

The seventh event of the Rolla Foundation, Urban, is a collective show composed of 38 works belonging to the Private Collection of Rosella and Philip Rolla.
The images in the exhibition represent the photographers view of the urbanized world in its diverse aspects: geographic, cultural and historical.
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Hans Finsler
Schokoladenfabrik Most, 1928
vintage contact prints
8.4 x 11 cm

Hans Finsler. Sweet

Sweet shows one of the initial works of the father of objective photography, the Sachfotografie, Hans Finsler, German born and Swiss adopted (Heilbronn 1891 – Zurich 1972).
For thirty years professor at the Kunstgewerbeschule of Zurich, today Zürcher Hochschule der Kunst, he formed a large part of the major exponents of Swiss photography, from Werner Bischof to René Burri, from Emil Schulltess to Peter W. Häberlin.

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Her

Francesca Woodman
Untitled, 1980
gelatin silver print
22.1 × 19.8 cm

Her

On the occasion of Bi8, Ogni sguardo un passo, the eighth edition of Biennale dell’Immagine, the Rolla Foundation offers an exhibition, Her, that includes a selection of works from the private collection of Rosella and Phil Rolla.

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Walter Zadek
Untitled (White City under construction), 1930s
ferrotyped gelatin silver print

White City

White City refers to the presence in Tel Aviv of over 4,000 buildings constructed in the Bauhaus and International styles in the 1930s. This city has the largest number of buildings built according to the principles of the Modern Movement in the world.

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Robert Adams
New Housing, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1968/71
vintage gelatin silver print
14.7 × 14.7 cm

Houses

The third event of the Rolla Foundation is a group exhibition that offers, through 32 photographic works and 20 artists, a look at the theme: houses. The idea of presenting a photographic exhibition dedicated to houses originated in Rosella and Phil Rolla’s passion for architecture; a passion which has led them, over the years, to collect photographs of buildings, factories, interiors and architectural details.

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Ruth Hallensleben
Industrial Image #20, 1930
gelatin silver print
11,1 × 16,4 cm

Ruth Hallensleben. Solo quello che c'era

The second show organized by the Rolla Foundation is dedicated to the German photographer Ruth Hallensleben. Her work is not only a poetic vision or a technical feat but a testimonial to the historical period in which she lived, 20th Century Germany. Little space is left to individualism in favor of a global vision.

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Josef Sudek
Židle u okna
(Chair by the window), 1972,
gelatin silver print
23 × 17,5 cm

Josef Sudek. Cacciatore di magia

Inaugurated in June 2010, the first exhibition of the Rolla Foundation is dedicated to the Czechoslovakian photographer Josef Sudek (1896-1976).

Josef Sudek is an enigmatic and fascinating artist, he is drawn to mysterious and moody visions, to the single detail that renders each photograph unique and to a technique that is often only apparently imperfect, above all in the printing...

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BOX SET

23 catalogs, 22 projects

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