I listen to your heart, city

With over 150 photographs, this publication covers the main themes in the body of work of Gabriele Basilico (Milan, 1944–2013), in particular his relationship with cities and urban landscapes. Beginning with the Milano: Ritratti di fabbriche cycle from the late 1970s, this book follows the evolution of Basilico’s artistic language from his legendary pictures taken in France and in major ports across Europe in the 1980s to the 1991 series devoted to Beirut, which had just left behind its long civil war, up to his final work on the renewal of the Porta Nuova district in Milan. The main core of works in this publication consists of the fifty portraits of cities which the artist took over the course of his career: Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Moscow, San Francisco, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, and Shanghai intermingle and dialogue through Basilico’s impassioned and contemplative gaze. He was able to interpret the passage of time, transformations in architecture, and unexpected analogies in an endless journey across the bodies of cities.