Within the sphere of the celebrations for the centenary of the birth of Alberto Moravia, the civic history museum Civiche Raccolte Storiche in Milan has planned a photographic exhibition at the Contemporary History Museum in via Sant'Andrea 6, entitled "Out of Africa with Alberto Moravia" curated by Lorenzo Capellini, the photographer who accompanied the writer and Dacia Maraini on their journey in 1979.
Both knew the African continent very well; Moravia had travelled as a correspondent for Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera beginning in 1963, Capellini a little later, but both nurtured the same desire to discover post colonial Africa, the hopes and expectations of a continent without history and out of time - suspended between prehistory and the future.
This mutual love for Africa lay at the heart of the friendship which linked Alberto Moravia and Lorenzo Capellini for a long time. On their travels the two correspondents met the great animals of the Black Continent, the still unspoiled wilderness, the remote villages, the great rivers, the cities, the co-existence of the various tribes, travelled the coasts of East Africa looking out on to the Indian Ocean and visited the ancient village Lamu of Arab origin. The exhibition consists of 170 large format photographs in colour and in black and white. Accompanying the photos are texts by Alberto Moravia taken from the articles published in Corriere della Sera in 1979.
“One day, it was the early Sixties and I was living in London, I decided to treat myself to a journey to Africa, to Kenya, which was a British colony at the time. I was absolutely enchanted: I will never forget those skies, those colours, those scents, those flowers, that splendour and those sunsets. Discovering the animals of Africa, I felt the same emotion you feel when admiring a work of art. And all the stories Hemingway had told me years ago in Spain came back to my mind and to my heart. Soon I felt the desire growing inside me to stay for longer in that country, I understood the meaning of “Africa sickness”, as the first travellers and British colonists had called it. The sweetest feeling, one which makes the idea of leaving that world behind absolutely unbearable.
The time I spent in East Africa was wonderful, with the awareness of living in great freedom, in the midst of an enchanting wilderness, which the hand of man, sometimes evil, had not yet managed to destroy. Karen Blixen said: “This land emanates a sense of magnificence”. At the end of the Sixties I returned to Italy and soon afterwards had the good fortune to meet and get to know Alberto Moravia. And a beautiful friendship began straight away: it was certainly the mutual love for Africa which bound us. And towards the end of the Seventies we decided to go to Africa together: Moravia wanted to see the places where I had spent so many happy years, he wanted to see Black Africa with its great animals. They were great journeys, my travel companion Moravia was extraordinary, untiring and with an infinite curiosity. It is with great emotion, today, after thirty years, that I remember that time, that friendship, that dazzling intelligence .”
With these words, Lorenzo Capellini introduces us to the atmospheres of the volume, catalogue of an exhibition which forms part of the celebrations for the centenary of the birth of the great writer. Among the pages of the exhibition catalogue, the words of Dacia Maraini, Moravia’s companion, appear exceedingly precious: «These photographs by Lorenzo Capellini bring back so many memories, so many forgotten visions, so many moments of intensity. When he was travelling, Alberto was just as we see him in the photographs with his hat on his head, seen from behind, standing up, intently contemplating a mysteriously calm and coloured sea».
And she adds: «He was capable of being a man of contemplation and a man of action at the same time. He was never still for a moment, he never tired of travelling, of walking, of planning. But at the same time, he loved stopping in front of landscapes just conquered, he loved losing himself in time, forgetting everything»
At this point it is the photographs which do the talking. 170 large-format images, in colour and in black and white, recall the story and the memory of a friendship, that between the photographer Lorenzo Capellini and Alberto Moravia, united by their love for the extraordinary African continent.
“I am delighted that this exhibition is to take place at the Contemporary History Museum – declared councillor Sgarbi - It is a place I am particularly fond of, a space for which we are trying different avenues and opportunities to give it the prominence and the appeal it deserves, given the collection it contains and its incredible location in the city.” “Alberto Moravia is a part of contemporary Italian history – Sgarbi continues –. He participated in history, he has given an intellectual direction to many Italians, and his thinking has contributed to the civil education of the Italians. It has given us a different way of interpreting history, he has contributed to changing our way of seeing the world.”


Museo di Storia Contemporanea
via Sant'Andrea 6,
tel. 02.88464184