Ricomporci dove possiamo essere visti
Reassembling ourselves in plain sight
Solo show curated by Bruno Lorini.
The exhibition is part of the Microfestival dell’abitare, Padova, curated by Silvia Codato.
InStudio
Via Cesare Battisti 237, Padova 35121
2026.05.13 - 09.06
Opening 2026.05.13, 20:00
Presenting Fronteggiarsi (videocamere), a live-streamed performative installation, and a new image from AS WE BUILT NO BARRICADES.
Curatorial text:Urban life no longer seems suited to coexistence. The disappearance of every third space, the tension between overtourism and depopulation, and the advance of surveillance systems (human and otherwise) all contribute to the continuous erosion of any desire for community. For several decades now, all of this has converged into a deafening difficulty in reimagining our relationship with collective living – and even more than that: what is collapsing is also our capacity to conceive of ways to impose ourselves upon reality, to initiate change, to recognize ourselves as agents rather than merely passive recipients of what happens around us.
Is it still possible today to think of urban space as a place of sharing, conducive to the development of a collective and perhaps even dissenting critical consciousness? How is this space regimented from above? And above all, what role do we play within this process of normalization?
Starting from these questions, the exhibition unfolds in two phases, exploring different possibilities for rethinking collective life within urban space.
Fronteggiarsi (videocamere) opens this investigation by examining the widespread diffusion of video surveillance systems. Two screens installed at opposite corners of the exhibition space display two distinct live-streamed video channels: the first shows footage captured by a camera inside InStudio, portraying visitors within the gallery; the second is remotely connected to a performer moving through the city of Padova. Acting as an observer who reveals without revealing themselves, the performer drifts through urban space tracing a map of the city’s surveillance network: the increase or decrease of these devices depending on the area appears as a symptom of a structural fragility that such tools cannot resolve. At the same time, by observing the exhibition visitors remotely without being seen by them, the performer establishes a renewed asymmetry of gaze.
The only means available to the external observer for entering into direct contact with those inside the exhibition is their voice: through the audio system, they can speak to visitors and construct a whispered, clandestine conversation in which only those physically present can take part. Addressing them directly, the performer briefly recounts stories of collective mobilization, blending reality and fiction in order to make room for a dissenting imagination.
Through these vocal exchanges, different possible trajectories emerge for subverting the existing order and reclaiming urban life. The structure of the city therefore demands to be reconsidered: both in the ways we move through it and in the representations we create of it. Mounted on the wall between the two screens hangs a large print from the series AS WE BUILT NO BARRICADES, a collection of images depicting fictitious barricades scattered throughout urban space. The project, initiated in Padova in 2024 and later reproduced in several other cities, now reaches the hangars of the city’s small airport.
The hyper-barricades that compose this series respond to the theme of the aestheticization of dissent, whereby a protest or demonstration is immediately absorbed into the endless flow of online imagery, stripped of its creative force. At the same time, the production of these images investigates the possibility of thinking about visual fabulation as a tool for prefiguring reality – a way of more clearly visualizing what urgently needs to change.