Pleasure Island

“Rimini has been the muse and inspiration for great artists: the renowned director Federico Fellini, in the film Amarcord portrayed an oneirc Rimini perpetually suspended between childhood dreams and teenage turmoil. Also, native-born photographer Marco Pesaresi contributed with his black and white shots’…”

Photos and text: Federico Arcangeli

Rimini is a well-known Italian tourist destination on the Adriatic coast. It’s been considered the capital of clubs and nightlife ever since. It counts 150.000 inhabitants, but in summer it becomes a small metropolis which can accommodate up to 2.500.000 visitors.
Rimini has been the muse and inspiration of great artists who described it through their eyes, such as native-born photographer Marco Pesaresi with his black and white shots, or the great director Federico Fellini, thanks to whom, in the 70’s, Rimini became famous in the whole world after his film Amarcord (translating “I remember”). A movie telling the life the inhabitants of an oneiric Rimini, perpetually suspended between childhood dreams and teenage turmoil.
During the 80’s clubs and discos lived their golden age, with a large number of visitors, VIP’s and a display of extreme luxury which led to the 90’s, where luxury and strict selection at the entrance of clubs made way for experimentation, afterhours parties and music research.
Despite the fact that times have changed and several historic clubs are now shut down for good, Rimini can still charm night people who long for transgression so much.
This project by Federico Arcangeli came alive a bit by chance. Born at first more as a photo-diary of nights out going clubbing with friends, it then becomes the slice of an era, not far from its bygone splendor.
Through his lens and his images he carries us to those clubs, drenched in that dreamy atmosphere that only the “Riviera” (Romagna coast) can create. Thanks to his shots we meet again those Felliniesque characters in fun and grotesque situations. We find couples dancing and holding each other, following love rituals which last a nighttime and disappear at sunrise; we find eternal youngsters who never get old, as if in Neverland.
What comes out is the portrait of a sultry, sexy, charming town which resembles a playground, where one can let oneself be tempted.

Photos and text: Federico Arcangeli

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