Mario Cresci (b. Chiavari, 1942) is an Italian artist whose work, since the 1960s, has marked the development of an innovative and experimental language within the photographic medium. His multidisciplinary practice combines an aesthetic reflection on photographic language with field research, anthropological inquiry and an interest in graphic and urban design.

His complex practice is rooted in multidisciplinary studies begun in Venice in 1963 and, after his move to Rome in 1969, shaped by encounters with leading figures of Arte Povera, including Pino Pascali, Eliseo Mattiacci, Yannis Kounellis and Alighiero Boetti.

In 1969, he designs and produces the first photographic environment in Europe at Galleria Il Diaframma in Milan, a body of work addressing the consumerism of the period, consisting of one thousand transparent cylinders, each containing a transparent photograph.

In 1970, he participates in the Venice Biennale, to which he is invited again in 1978, 1993 and 1995.

In the 1970s, he settles in Matera - designated European Capital of Culture for 2019 - where he combines the study of photographic language with a culture of the project, with a particular focus on cultural anthropology. He produces works and develops initiatives aimed at advancing the photographic medium in Italy. Among these projects is the publication of Matera, Immagini e Documenti (1975), a book that can be considered the first photographic work devoted to the urban anthropology of southern Italy.

In the 1980s, he contributes to a re-evaluation of the landscape and its meaning, a subject brought to the forefront by Luigi Ghirri’s Viaggio in Italia, exhibited at Pinacoteca C. Giaquinto di Bari in 1984.

Since 1974, a selection of his works, together with works by Luigi Ghirri, has been part of the MoMA collection in New York.

His works are held in numerous public collections, institutions and research centres, including MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo in Rome, GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Bergamo, Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna, ICG – Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in Rome, Museo d’Arte Medioevale e Moderna della Basilicata in Matera, MAGA – Museo d’Arte in Gallarate, GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin, CSAC - Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione in Parma, MARCA – Museo delle Arti in Catanzaro and CRAF - Centro Ricerca e Archiviazione della Fotografia in Spilimbergo.

Throughout these years, Cresci continues to push the boundaries of the photographic medium, exploring visual processes and reflecting on the ambiguity of perception, the semantic value of the image, and its relationship to time, memory and the archive. Through these investigations, he develops a sophisticated and multifaceted critical approach to photographic language.

Mario Cresci teaches at Fondazione Fotografia in Modena and at ISIA University in Urbino. He lives and works in Bergamo.