To mark the 22nd Contemporary Art Day, promoted by AMACI, the State Archives of Matera are hosting a special opening of the exhibition POMPEI – Architectures of the Gaze by Antonello Di Gennaro, curated by Fiorella R. Fiore.
The exhibition, promoted by MIP – Matera International Photography as part of MIPphest 2026 (the 10th International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts), is included in the program for Matera: Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue 2026.
The photographic project by Antonello Di Gennaro—one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary photography—stems from an encounter with a place that is already widely depicted and deeply rooted in the collective imagination: Pompei. Faced with an immense visual legacy, the artist does not seek to create a new iconic image, nor does he aim simply to add more photographs to an already vast archive; instead, his work focuses on the possibility of looking anew.
POMPEI – Architectures of the Gaze is, therefore, not merely an exhibition dedicated to Pompei, but a reflection on the ways in which we look at, remember, and represent places through photography. It is an experience of “cultural transhumance” that fosters a dialogue between territories, communities, and diverse ways of seeing, inviting the public to rediscover the slow, essential pace of the act of looking.
