The exhibition VILLA BELLA - Iconographic memory of a beautiful island (Ilhabela 1900–1980) arrives at one of the most important cultural spaces in São Paulo: MIS – Museum of Image and Sound.
The project was awarded in the Programa de Ação Cultural – ProAC – of Secretaria da Cultura, Economia e Indústria Criativas of the Government of the State of São Paulo. After its debut in the city of São Paulo, the exhibition will also be presented at the Municipal Theater of Ubatuba, from May 17th to June 8th, and then will move to Caraguatatuba, where it can be seen at the Museum of Art and Culture (MACC), from June 20th to July 20th.
Organized by photographer Maristela Colucci, the exhibition features 69 images portraying moments from the past, deeply ingrained in the culture and daily life of Ilhabela's residents, notably highlighting the shift from Villa Bella to Ilhabela.
The iconographic material covers records between 1900 and 1980, a period that coincides with the evolution of photography and the consolidation of a multiple and complex culture within the archipelago. From the 1990s, while we witnessed the beginning of a major change in the capture and sharing of photographs, we also saw mass tourism intensify and interfere with local habits, altering environments, geography, and the traditional caiçara way of life.
The exhibition is the result of in-depth research into this cultural plurality. During the process, Maristela Colucci came across private collections of caiçara families and the first immigrants and vacationers. Throughout the research and conception journey of the exhibition, various photographs on paper – whose negatives were lost – were found, stored in boxes, albums, and, a few, framed. In the case of slides, preservation was not ideal and the images showed signs of handling and fungus. The biggest surprise was finding daguerreotypes from the 1920s and 1930s.
The images are available for research and online access on the project's Instagram:
