Overtaking

A fine but resilient thread links in Italy the privation and hardship of the post-war period with the economic boom that would burst forth throughout the sixties. Overtaking is not only a reference to the 1962 film The Easy Life (originally released as Il sorpasso, literally “overtaking”), now firmly embedded in popular culture. It evokes the idea of a country that accelerates, vying for a position – not without some show of aggression, vulgarity, and swagger – one that somehow overtakes itself, managing to forge ahead despite the social problems it often leaves unsolved or are created by the rapid development itself. Like cinema, photography is a witness to these events – sometimes triumphalist but more often adopting bittersweet or openly critical forms. The aim of this exhibition is to represent such a plurality of vision, that is both Italian and international, including the work of professionals as well as anonymous agency photographers, alongside the institutional but attentive output of the Istituto Luce. The main focus is ordinary people, their stories and daily lives, and their emotions, including those of warmth and nostalgia; culminating in the opening of the new decade, with the Rome Olympics (1960), the completion of the television network (1960), and the motorway connecting Milan and Naples, the Autostrada del Sole (1964).