Group exhibition curated by Maristella Trombetta
The Mediterranean as a geographical space, but above all as a territory of memory, relationships and experience. It is around this idea that Mediterranean Anthropographies, a group exhibition curated by Maristella Trombetta and promoted by MIP – Matera International Photography as part of the “Matera Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue 2026” programme, has been developed. Hosted at the State Archives of Matera, the exhibition is part of the programme of the 10th International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts MIPphest 2026, Fluid Horizons.
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Marcela Grassi (Spain) photographed the Design Hub, the Glòries Design Museum, in 2013, on the occasion of its inauguration.
With Nature Nudes, Ruben Buhagiar (Malta) explores the unadorned form of the landscape through an essential and immersive vision that eliminates every superfluous element in order to bring out the territory’s underlying structure.
The works brought together in the exhibition do not portray the Mediterranean through the simple representation of places, cities or landscapes. Rather, they explore its multiple dimensions through a phenomenology of looking: the sea becomes experience and memory, atmosphere and belonging, but also a space of passage, conflict, encounter and transformation.
Photolife Malta by Kevin Casha (Malta) is a visual journey through the rhythm of urban life: faces, streets, lights and moments of waiting portray the city as a space of encounters and contrasts.
The project Mar Piccolo by Enzo Ferrari (Italy) explores Taranto’s inner sea, its introspective heart. Mar Piccolo is a crucible of history and emotions, a repository of fishing traditions and sacredness, a hermitage for urban anchorites in search of solitude.
The Mediterranean that emerges from these images is therefore not a single, unambiguous geography, but a mobile and layered territory, a lived space in which individual and collective stories accumulate. Migration, identity, absence, traditions, architecture and everyday life form a web of relationships that runs through the different photographic practices.
In Ethic Cook, Michele Carnimeo (Italy) brings together photographs of migrants from different backgrounds around the theme of food, a symbol and a living, powerful bond with the roots and culture of their homeland.
The focus then shifts towards the spiritual dimension with ST. DIONISIOU MONASTERY – Mount Athos, Greece by Pygmalion Karatzas (Greece), which portrays Mount Athos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with an uninterrupted monastic life dating back to AD 972. It is an Orthodox spiritual centre that has enjoyed autonomous status since the Byzantine era. It is home to 20 monasteries, inhabited by around 1,400 monks, together with dozens of subsidiary structures.
The themes of migration and the precariousness of housing are at the heart of Under the Blanket by Maria Pansini (Italy), a project devoted to immigrants working in this area. They are nomadic and move from place to place every two or three months. They have no permanent home: they camp in shanty towns near the plantations or in abandoned ruins in the countryside, without electricity or running water. At times, the municipalities affected by the seasonal migration of workers provide tents or temporary dormitories.
The relationship between identity, memory and territory lies at the heart of The Roots that Sing the Sacred by Antonello Di Gennaro (Italy), which stems from a visual anthropology research project carried out in a small Albanian community, a place where memory, tradition and belonging continue to shape the identity of the community.
The photographs thus take the form of sensitive maps: they do not chart definitive routes, but suggest journeys and crossings, inviting viewers to engage with what the Mediterranean preserves, transforms and continues to generate.
With Horses Grazing Among the Ruins of the Real Estate Market Temple, Christian Gold-Kurz describes how nature is already reclaiming what has always belonged to it. The soft muzzle of the horses, set against the hardness of the material, creates a counterpoint between nature and capital.
Istanbul and the Balat district are at the centre of Simonetta Prestinenzi’s (Italy) reportage Life in Balat. Set along the Golden Horn, the neighbourhood preserves traces of its multicultural past. Here, everyday life unfolds among narrow alleyways, students from Qur’anic schools, children playing in the streets, street vendors, elderly people sitting on chairs and countless cats.
In Thresholds of the Visible, Carla Cantore (Italy) portrays Maltese architecture as an element of fragile balance within the maritime landscape, shaped by proximity and distance, by thresholds that reveal the continuous relationship between dwelling and horizon.
In Matera, Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy (France), with the series Fragments of Days, offers an infinitesimal piece of a larger picture: a fragment composed of pieces of a vast and fluid world, in which the characters, modern solitary figures, are immersed in a setting that appears foreign to them, yet is charged with stories from the past or stories waiting to emerge.
The question of identity and cultural transmission returns in Melania Avanzato’s (France) Crossing the Light, which asks: what remains of the identity inherited from our parents when we migrate towards other shores? Her parents, children of the Mediterranean islands, were never able to leave behind their light, scented with pine and dry grass. And yet, even when the land is the same, gestures are different and the voices of the wind tell other stories.
The exhibition concludes with The Yellow Suitcase by Maurizio Guarino (Italy), created at “Madre Bimbi”, a story of a place where mothers arrive in silence, sometimes carrying only a single suitcase, perhaps a yellow one, with a few belongings or little more. They do not always say what they are fleeing from, but it can be sensed in their measured gestures, their watchful eyes and the way they keep their children close.
The exhibition is free to visit until 31 August 2026.
For further information: www.materainternationalphotography.com
Melania Avanzato (France) — Franco-Italian photographer and member of the Parallèle collective. She took part in the 2022 exhibition Ukraine, War and Exile – Photographic Viewpoints and, in 2024, was the featured photographer in the Alliance Française of Toronto’s photography residency.
Ruben Buhagiar (Malta) — Maltese photographer and President of the Malta Photographic Society. Active in the island’s contemporary photographic scene, in 2021 he received two Honourable…
Carla Cantore (Italy) — photographer and visual artist, she lives and works between Matera and Rome. Her practice moves between documentary and social photography and visual experimentation. She has exhibited in Italy and abroad, notably in Buenos Aires, Groningen, Plovdiv and the Principality of Monaco, as well as in Rome, Milan, Turin, Vicenza, Bari and Matera. Her work is held in public and private collections, including MAM – Museum of Modern Art, the Museo Dinamico della Mail Art in Quiliano and The Plot Foundation.
Michele Carnimeo (Italy) — professional photographer, he lives and works in Bari, where he opened his first studio in 1989. In 2013, he won the FIOF International Festival for Orvieto Fotografia. He teaches photography at the Nouvelle Esthétique Académie in Bari.
Kevin Casha (Malta) — Maltese photographer with more than 35 years of experience. President and founder of the Malta Institute of Professional Photography, he teaches photography at several Maltese institutions, including Heritage Malta, the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology and the University of Malta.
Antonello Di Gennaro (Italy) — photographer and visual artist whose practice brings together fine-art photography, memory, territory and anthropological culture. He has exhibited in Italy and abroad, including at the Triennale Milano, the Museo Civico Floriano Bodini in Gemonio and the Lishui International Photographic Art Exhibition in China. In 2017, he was the Italian Ambassador in Lishui in the Art – Professional Photography category, and in 2018 he obtained QIP – Qualified Italian Photographer certification.
Enzo Ferrari (Italy) — journalist, photographer and creator of projects devoted to music, culture and the symbolic dimension of the image. He exhibited at CRAC Puglia in Taranto in an exhibition curated by art historian Lara Caccia, and in 2024 he was a national finalist in the Portfolio Italia circuit.
Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy (France) — photographer and artist who explores the representation of urban space through photography, video and writing. His work has been presented at major international festivals, including Circulation(s) in Paris, Voies Off in Arles, ManifestO in Toulouse, the Riga Photography Biennial and Fotofestiwal Łódź.
Christian Gold-Kurz (Austria) — Viennese artist working across cinema and photography. He studied at the Friedl Kubelka School for Independent Film and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and has worked in film and for the broadcaster okto.tv. Since 2021, he has been a member of the board of Fotogalerie Wien.
Maurizio Guarino (Italy) — Italian photographer whose practice focuses on social photography and documenting communities. In 2025, he received the Fosco Maraini Reportage Award for his project “Half a Metre Above the Ground”.
Marcela Grassi(Spain) — Italian-born architectural photographer, trained as an architect, whose practice focuses on space, light and geometry. She has received two LUX Awards in the Architecture and Interior Photography category: Silver in 2021 and Bronze in 2024.
Pygmalion Karatzas (Greece) — photographer specialising in architecture, with a background in architecture and urban planning. He has exhibited in Greece, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the USA. Winner of the 2015–2016 Fulbright Artist Scholarship, he created the “Integral Lens” project in the United States. He received distinctions at the 2018 PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris and the 2019 Moscow International Foto Awards.
Maria Pansini (Italy) — Italian photographer whose practice spans reportage, portraiture and social photography. In 2023, she won the Corigliano Calabro Fotografia Book Award for “Under the Blanket”, a project documenting migrants’ journeys towards Italy.
Simonetta Prestinenzi (Italy) — lecturer and photographer who lived in Istanbul, where she developed a practice combining street photography and everyday life, with particular attention to the city’s working-class neighbourhoods. In 2017, she presented the solo exhibition “Women and Children of Istanbul”.
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