The exhibition in the Liguria Room features approximately 70 photographs, taken since 2000, with a spontaneous approach influenced by street photography. These images show the protagonists of chance encounters, faces and expressions that accompany us through a country in pain, devoid of illusions, perpetually oscillating between confirming stereotypes and melancholic postcards.

At first, during his first brief travels, the author takes simple snapshots. There’s still no awareness in his gaze, but one can already sense his extraordinary ability to connect with others, whoever they may be, often part of an occasional, sometimes outcast, humanity.

Mancuso approaches, inhabits the places, participates, and becomes an accomplice. A natural empathy shapes and softens his vision: always forgiving, never judgmental, strengthened by a sensitivity and emotional energy that allows him to welcome and be welcomed.

Terre di Sud is a long project, spanning eight years, during which photography becomes a means to observe the reality that interests him: that of people living on the margins of society or experiencing hardship, to whom the author gives voice through images. Aware of the imprecise form of his works, he humbly pursues his most important task: connecting. He doesn’t focus on the aesthetic form of visual language. For him, simply entering the lives of others is already a success.

In this exhibition, entitled A Different Beauty , the Terre di Sud project is now presented in a completely revisited form: a bright and joyful anthropological fresco, in which the characteristics of our country coexist and, through Mancuso’s photography, are enriched with many nuances.

There’s a kind of disarming naiveté and, at the same time, a firm conviction in his work. There’s his sensitivity as he draws the protagonists he chooses to tell the story of the country. Politics, economics, and macro-history are always filtered through the micro-history of individuals. Lives lived and witnessed firsthand. And with candor, with intrepid audacity, we witness the passing of a time narrated with rare compassion.

Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura

“Emiliano Mancuso. A different kind of beauty”

Curated by Renata Ferri.
Liguria Room, 23 October – 29 november 2020
Free entrance
For visiting hours, please visit the website: https://palazzoducale.genova.it