Giovanna Silva. Borderline Modernity
Opening: 26.07.2025 (Saturday), 6 PM. Prior to the inauguration of the exhibition, there will be a workshop on preserving photographic archives at 4 PM. Admission is free, without reservation.
Duration: 26.07.2025 – 07.09.2025
Opening hours: Monday – Thursday: 11am – 5pm, Friday: 3pm – 7pm, Saturday – Sunday: 11am – 4pm
Place: Archeology of Photography Foundation, 20 Chłodna Street, Warsaw
Borderline Modernity is an exhibition by Italian photographer Giovanna Silva that explores architecture and contemporary cities in Sicily and Poland. These two geographical areas on the periphery of the European Union have a complex relationship with modernity and architecture created after the Second World War. In Sicily, this architecture is often associated with uncontrolled urban and industrial development, not devoid of hoax activities, while in Poland, during the same period, architecture was also a political tool linked to socialist ideology.
Giovanna Silva’s photographic work offers an original and anti-monumental view of architecture. The author searches for the essence of spaces and buildings in seemingly insignificant details that reveal the real life that goes on within them. Silva has photographed modern architecture in various cities in Italy and abroad and has published numerous books on the subject. In recent years, she has been documenting the modern architecture of Sicily, and her work has mostly not yet been exhibited. The landscape captured by Silva includes bold and daring, sometimes quiet, post-war architecture designed by local and foreign architects. It represents an idea of modernity that moves Sicily away from the stereotypes associated with its Greek, Roman, Arab-Norman or Baroque past.
The photographs of Sicily exhibited at the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw are paired with photographs dedicated to the post-war architecture of five Polish cities – Warsaw, Wrocław, Krakow, Katowice and Tychy – taken during the photographer’s research trip between March and May 2025. In Poland, Silva explores socialist architecture created from the end of the Second World War until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Her work is an interpretation of the architectural output of this period and its styles, from rationalism and social realism to postmodernism, which contributes to the description of different political periods, from Stalinism to the advent of Solidarity. The photographic project on Poland is on display at the Archeology of Photography Foundation, where Silva’s images are juxtaposed with photographs of the same architecture by Polish photographers Maria Chrząszczowa, Mariusz Hermanowicz, Maciej Musiał, Tadeusz Sumiński and Antoni Zdebiak, whose archives are held by the foundation, in an exhibition that allows the historical evolution of the buildings photographed to be captured.
The exhibition is curated by Pietro Airoldi and Izabela Anna Rzeczkowska-Moren, members of the :AFTER group, whose activities focus on the debate on architecture in Sicily. The photographic project between Italy and Poland is realised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw with the support of the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and the Italian Cultural Institute in Krakow. The exhibition is in collaboration with the Archeology of Photography Foundation in Warsaw.
The opening of the second instalment of the exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw will take place on 24.07.2025 (Thursday), 6 p.m. Duration of the exhibition: 24.07.2025 – 22.09.2025 Place: the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw, 72 Marszałkowska St., 00-545
The exhibition will be open in Warsaw from July to September 2025, then transferred in a renewed version to the Italian Cultural Institute in Krakow, where it will be on view from October to November 2025.
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Artist: Giovanna Silva
Originators and curators: Pietro Airoldi and Izabela Anna Rzeczkowska-Moren
Project promoted by: Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw
Project made possible with the support of: the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture,
and with the support of: Italian Cultural Institute in Krakow
In collaboration with: Archeology of Photography Foundation, :AFTER, Fondazione Studio Rizoma
Art direction and design: Olivia Lynk and Maria Teresa Daniele
The project is the winner of the competition: ‘Public competition for the promotion of Italian photography abroad 2025’, organised by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.
Main photography: Giovanna Silva, Seminarium, 2025
