A remarkable story of lost and found has emerged from the archives of renowned Italian photographer Gabriele Basilico, involving a forgotten photography project that captured Milan's underground nightclub scene in the late 1970s. The project, originally titled "non recensiti" (not reviewed), disappeared for decades before being miraculously rediscovered during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to its eventual publication by Humboldt Books.
The extraordinary tale begins in 1976, when Basilico, who had graduated from architecture school three years earlier, was still uncertain whether to pursue photography or architecture. While working on a project at Rimini's Grand Hotel with collaborator Maurizio Zanuso, Basilico encountered performers from the adjacent Lady Godiva nightclub. When the artists invited him to photograph their show, he accepted and spent the entire night capturing images until daybreak. Though he didn't take many photos that night, it planted the seed for what would become a significant documentation project.
The project gained momentum when Basilico mentioned his nightclub photography to journalist friend Tamara Molinari, who worked for the monthly magazine Abitare. Molinari, who had previously coined the title for Basilico's acclaimed "Milano. Ritratti di fabbriche" (Milan. Factory Portraits), suggested he continue photographing revue theaters and striptease venues. She proposed the title "non recensiti," noting that in the late 1970s, no newspaper would consider reviewing artistic performances in nightclubs. The golden era of performers like Wanda Osiris had ended, and Milanese venues such as l'Hermes, Il Colibri, and Il Teatrino were clearly declining.
Despite the unconventional nature of their investigation, Basilico and Molinari found universal cooperation at every venue they visited. They followed shows, spent time backstage, and gained unrestricted access to dressing rooms and preparation areas. Often accompanied by photographer friend Cesare Colombo, the team was warmly welcomed wherever they went. Molinari would build trust with the performers, whom Basilico would then photograph in intimate portraits. None of the subjects refused to pose; instead, they would change clothes and accessories specifically for him, looking directly into the lens with complete trust.
Zanuso recalls Basilico's unusual approach of explaining to the performers – whether naked or wearing sparkling bikinis – that he typically photographed architecture and was working on a survey of Milanese factories. After initial moments of confusion, the performers showed remarkable complicity with the project. Basilico captured not only the artists, presenters, and comedians, but also supporting figures like Rodney the dance teacher, scene prop builders, cashiers, furnishings, and costumes. He returned to various clubs multiple times, always receiving a warm welcome.
Once the project was complete, Molinari, Basilico, and Zanuso (handling graphic design) assembled a book layout and presented it to publisher Gabriele Mazzotta. While Mazzotta liked the unusual project, he suggested changing the title to "Pop Sex," which the authors found somewhat unsettling. More problematically, when Mazzotta asked how to contact the performers for permissions, Basilico and Molinari realized they often didn't even know the subjects' real names or how to reach them. By 1981, the project had hit an insurmountable obstacle, and the book layout was stored in a shoebox and forgotten.
Basilico's career took a decisive turn in 1983 when "Milano. Ritratti di fabbriche" was presented at the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea. This exhibition established cities and metropolises as his permanent focus, and the nightclub project became merely a topic of occasional conversation before being completely forgotten. When Basilico moved his studio from Piazza Tricolore to Via Pergolesi twenty years later, the negatives and layout of "non recensiti" vanished entirely, while the original prints ended up in storage boxes in his garage alongside bicycles.
The magical rediscovery began on Thursday, October 15, 2020, when Alberto Saibene from Humboldt Books contacted curator Giovanna Calvenzi, expressing interest in publishing the legendary "non recensiti" project if it ever resurfaced. Calvenzi, who had been searching for the missing work for nearly a decade, forwarded the message to Gianni Nigro, Basilico's long-time collaborator, as a joke. Incredibly, Nigro responded the next day with a photograph of the layout's front cover, having discovered it in a wardrobe during COVID-19 lockdown studio cleaning.
The story's second miraculous element involved Andrea Elia Zanini, a student from Brera Academy of Fine Arts who came to intern in Visual Cultures and Curatorial Practices. With determination and time, Zanini searched through the garage, located the boxes containing original prints, completed all necessary scanning, and organized the material that would comprise the final book. His methodical approach gave form and order to decades-old forgotten work.
A final surprising connection emerged when Calvenzi attended a 2017 conference by renowned photographer Joan Fontcuberta at MAST in Bologna in November 2020. Fontcuberta told the story of discovering archives from Valencia photographer Ximo Berenguer, who in the 1970s had photographed nightclub performers at Barcelona's El Molino before dying in a motorcycle accident. His book layout was forgotten for years before eventual publication. The striking similarities between Berenguer's work and Basilico's "non recensiti" convinced Calvenzi that Fontcuberta, known for his visual paradoxes and exploration of truth versus fiction, should contribute to the book.
The published volume concludes with a fictional dialogue between Basilico and the imaginary Berenguer, created by Fontcuberta to explore themes of reality and fiction, truth and lies. While the dialogue is entirely fabricated, Fontcuberta notes that all mentioned figures are real people, and Basilico might well have said the things attributed to him in this literary device.
In a final twist worthy of the project's magical nature, on February 3, 2021, while searching for something else entirely, Zanini discovered all the original negatives in perfect order in a wardrobe, complete with contact sheets, color slides, and even entrance tickets from Cinema Smeraldo. The complete rediscovery of this lost documentation project has now been published as "Gabriele Basilico: non recensiti" by Humboldt Books, featuring contributions from Giovanna Calvenzi and Joan Fontcuberta, with design by original collaborator Maurizio Zanuso.
