The 44th dialogue in the Collezione Ettore Molinario series unfolds through what curator Ettore Molinario describes as "a vital game of coincidences" - those mysterious connections he has come to trust when encountering the artists he admires most. At the heart of this latest visual conversation lies Rome, the eternal city that served as the creative catalyst for two remarkable photographers separated by nearly a century.

As Albert Einstein once observed, "coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." Whether divine intervention or simply the mysterious forces that draw certain lives to places where creativity flows most intensely, Molinario finds it striking that both Karl Blossfeldt and Alain Fleischer conceived and created the images featured in this visual dialogue in the same city: Rome.

Blossfeldt's Roman journey began in 1890 when he arrived in the city at age 25, supported by a scholarship. At the time, he was studying sculpture at the Universität der Künste, Berlin's prestigious Academy of Fine Arts. Nearly a century later, in 1985, Fleischer also made his way to the Eternal City, then in his forties and the recipient of a photography fellowship from Villa Medici, home to the French Academy in Rome.

The parallels between their stories extend beyond timing and location. In 1884, Blossfeldt had encountered his mentor, Moritz Meurer, a painter born in 1839 - the very year photography was invented. Meurer was among the first artists to systematically study plant morphology and structural principles, transforming nature's ornamental richness into both an artistic methodology and teaching philosophy. Similarly, in 1981, during a major retrospective of his work in Saint-Étienne, Fleischer met Danielle Schirman, who would become his lifelong companion. A filmmaker in her own right, Schirman also received the Villa Medici fellowship in 1987.

Rome's creative energy - regenerative in its endless variety of forms and the flow of centuries - proved transformative for both artists. Under Meurer's guidance, Blossfeldt captured his first photographs of flowers in Rome, highlighting their forms and what he saw as their unique inner blend of function and raw, powerful beauty. This early work would become the foundation for his artistic research, eventually culminating in his 1928 masterpiece "Urformen der Kunst" (Art Forms in Nature), one of the most influential photography books of the twentieth century. The work was so groundbreaking that even philosopher Walter Benjamin engaged with its revolutionary ideas about the relationship between nature and art.

Fleischer, a multifaceted artist working as semiotician, anthropologist, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, took a different but equally innovative approach. He transformed reflective surfaces of everyday objects into generators of new images - such as capturing Danielle's face mirrored in the surface of a knife, creating layers of meaning and visual complexity that speak to his background in semiotics and his literary sensibilities influenced by writers like the Marquis de Sade.

Molinario reflects on whether it is perhaps the love of nature, combined with love itself - for images, for the act of creation - that transforms every artist into a kind of demiurge, binding such unique destinies together across time and space. He believes Rome plays a crucial role in this transformation, with its overwhelming intensity, accumulated centuries of history, and countless images covering every surface while simultaneously giving birth to new ones.

The connections between these artists extend into the realm of education and mentorship as well. In 1898, several years after returning from Rome, Blossfeldt became a teacher at the very institution where he had once been a student. Nearly a century later, in 1997, Fleischer founded and began directing Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France, where he continues to nurture new generations of artists. Among those who trained at Le Fresnoy is Agata Wieczorek, one of the youngest artists featured in Molinario's collection, creating yet another thread in this tapestry of artistic influence and inspiration.

The curator sees Rome as perhaps an eternal teacher of life itself, a city that continues to shape artists long after they have physically departed. In the case of Fleischer and Schirman, they never truly left Rome behind. In their home, they continue to cultivate beautiful plants, echoing Blossfeldt's fascination with botanical forms, while continuously shaping their love into ever-new artistic expressions.

This dialogue between Blossfeldt and Fleischer represents more than just a conversation between two photographers; it embodies the timeless dialogue between past and present, between different approaches to seeing and capturing the world, and between the eternal city of Rome and the artists it continues to inspire. The exhibition invites viewers to consider how certain places possess the power to awaken creative vision and how artistic influence can transcend temporal boundaries.

The Collezione Ettore Molinario continues to explore these visual dialogues as part of its ongoing mission to reveal unexpected connections between artists across different eras and artistic movements. The complete collection and additional dialogues can be explored through the collection's official website, where visitors can discover more about these fascinating artistic conversations that span continents and centuries.