Neighbourhood. Vision. Vocation.
Commerce tells the story of Arco’s transformation
With Arco Verticale, photographer Norma Todeschi explores the commercial and social transformation of Arco through a photographic journey that brings the city’s past into dialogue with its contemporary identity.
The title reflects two sides of the story.
“Verticale” first evokes the rock faces and climbing that, over the past forty years, have made Arco an international landmark for the climbing community.
But it also refers to an economic transformation: the gradual specialisation of local businesses around the mountains, climbing and outdoor culture.
Following Baricentri, a project dedicated to neighbourhood shops in Riva del Garda, Todeschi once again turns her attention to local businesses and the role they play in shaping the identity of a community.
The photographs bring together two worlds that only appear to be opposites.
On one side are historic shops and artisan businesses, places where goods, gestures, relationships and memories still tell the story of everyday local commerce.
On the other are modern outdoor specialist shops serving an international community that considers Arco one of its key destinations.
This is not, however, a nostalgic comparison between past and present.
The exhibition follows a single thread, summed up in the words Neighbourhood. Vision. Vocation.: the local shop, the intuition of the pioneers and today’s specialisation become different chapters of the same story.
Through frontal, descriptive photographs in which people and spaces share the same narrative importance, Arco Verticale creates a visual archive of change.
Beyond commerce, it explores how a city defines its identity through what it preserves, what it transforms and what it chooses to become.
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