SERENO

A journey through clouds and time.

Sereno is a journey through clouds and time, a visual and poetic tale about the figure of the weather colonel Edmondo Bernacca.

Bernacca was an institution for Italians, so much so that he has become a common expression. He was a meteorologist, general in the Italian Air Force and journalist. He was fortunate enough to be the first meteorologist to appear on television in Italy in 1955. From the 1960s to the 1980s, every evening, thousands of Italian families waited for his forecast to find out what the weather would be like the next day.

‘It all began,’ writes Fulvia Bernacca, his granddaughter, ’when, immersed in his archive, I found, among photographs and weather charts, his farewell letter, in which he recounts his last journey from the RAI studios to his home, and with it the milestones of his private and professional life.’ His words thus become the outline of a book in which memories and imagination, personal and collective memory, photographs and clouds intertwine.

The project

Working closely with the author allowed Studio Forward to approach the book while maintaining the intimate and familiar tone of the narrative, yet appealing to a wide audience.

The format is compact, like a diary or notebook, and the paper is lightweight, which, while not hindering the reproduction of the photographs, conveys the delicacy and poetry of the clouds and memories, further emphasised by the presence of transparent paper inserts, allowing the various archival materials to overlap. The special boxed edition accentuates the preciousness of the book, reworking the weather papers so dear to the colonel.

AUTHOR

Fulvia Bernacca

Photographer and visual artist, she develops her projects with a personal and intimate narrative using different media including photography, moving images, archival materials, words, sounds and sewing. The relationship between human beings and their environment, the connection with time and memory, the collective and the individual, stories of traditions and personal stories are at the centre of her artistic research. Her work has been published in D Repubblica, Mare Magazine, Yogurt Magazine, Photo Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar Art China, among others. She has exhibited at the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, Ragusa Foto Festival, Eco Museo Mare Memoria Viva, Palazzo Florio, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, and Riaperture Photo Festival. She is part of the artistic collective FrazioniResidue. She lives and works between Palermo and Rome.

For viewers, it was a regular fixture, so much so that they considered Colonel Bernacca part of the family. For me, Edmondo Bernacca has always been Nonno Mondo: Not just my grandfather, but a sort of wizard, a fortune teller, a mysterious man with enormous ears and a head full of clouds.

Presentation of the book SERENO, by Fulvia Bernacca. In dialogue with Benedetta Donato and Federico Montaldo.

SALA DELLE DONNE – Piazza Giacomo Matteotti 9, Genova

december 13, 2023

- 18:30

Milano \ Micamera

Presentation of the book SERENO, by Fulvia Bernacca. Moderator: Chiara Rizzica.

via medardo rosso 19, milano

november 18, 2023

Rovereto \ Festival of Meteorology

Presentation of the book SERENO, by Fulvia Bernacca. During the performance curated by the University Theatre Association of the University of Trento (ATU).

MUSEO DI SCIENZE E TECNOLOGIE – BORGO SANTA CATERINA 41, ROVERETO

october 25, 2023

- 17:00

Palermo \ Museo Riso

Presentation of the book SERENO, by Fulvia Bernacca. Valentina Greco, photographer and curator, moderates.

Sala Kounellis – via Vittorio Emanuele 365, Palermo

october 7, 2023

- 19:00

Rome \ Galleria Gallerati

Presentation of the book SERENO, by Fulvia Bernacca.

Via Apuania, 55 – Rome

september 16, 2023

- 16:30

Fivizzano \ Remembering Bernacca

Ricordando BernaccaPresentation of the book SERENO, by Fulvia Bernacca, as part of the event “Ricordando Bernacca”.
Hall of the Museum of St. John of the Augustinians.

Via Umberto I – Fivizzano MS

Printed and published in September 2023.