On Saturday 30th April, the new stage of the photographic exhibition “Here they fought!” was opened, this time inaugurated in Acqui Terme in the really nice Art Showroom of Chiabrera Hall. Right next to the Bollente Monument, the Military Chorus A.N.A. “Acqua Ciara Monferrina” singed songs about the stories of the people that left home during the Great War to fight in the places I have photographed. The cutting of the opening ribbon took place in presence of the Town Cultural Councillorship and of the Alpini National Association and many other Military Associations gathered for the occasion.
This Town has a particular meaning for the photographic exhibition, because from here left the Lieutenant-Colonel Pettinati, who planned to conquer the Monte Nero (Mount Krn) on the 15th June 1915 when the war just begun. Hit to death by a sniper shot he was the first Gold Medal of Honour of the Italian Army during the First World War. The photo of Monte Nero dominated by a starry sky is placed on a self-standing panel in the Showroom.
The entire exhibition path is strongly connected with the mountain troops’ songs. These songs are able to condense, between their notes, the spirit of sacrifice, mountain harshness, soldiers tenacity but more than everything else, a deep feeling of a humanity involved in a tragic war.
All along the opening of the exhibition, the chorus went on singing, warming up the atmosphere of the crowded Showroom. My attention was especially captured by a song, “Troop-Train” (La Tradotta), that tells the story of the front line that formed after the breaking of the Caporetto Battle, when Italy had been already fighting for years, and is about that steam train that left from Turin, heading directly to the Piave River front line, renamed “cemetery of youth”. When I listen this song I’m always touched. The desire to tell the stories of those men push me across the difficulties to keep this project alive, and complete it with photos that will be displayed in the second edition available from 2017.
A huge thank to Captain Giolito that gave support building the first bridge for the exhibition in Acqui Terme. A huge thanks also to the Alpini colleagues of Acqui for the concrete and fundamental help and to the colleagues of Milan for being at the opining with a delegation.
Alpine Heart.
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