The body as a ground of conflict and a boundary for claiming identity. But also the body as the pivot around which our relationship with space is constructed—a physical presence through which we inhabit places and forge our relationships.

Il corpo che abito (“The Body I Live In”), the third exhibition cycle dedicated to contemporary photography by Rifugio Digitale, will be an investigation into the body as a foundational element of the human being: living matter that resists the virtualization of existence and creative processes. In keeping with the gallery’s core DNA, it maintains a constant focus on the dialogue between the “inside” (the intimate, introspective dimension) and the “outside” (the physical and emotional architectures we construct).

Il corpo che abito will also be a reflection on the body in its political dimension—as an instrument of expression, a vehicle for pleasure, and a battlefield on which to assert one’s rights; a territory whose freedom is continually redrawn through negotiations with power, and a variable that cannot be defined outside its complex intersections with ideas of race and class.

What is “beautiful” and what is “ugly”? What is “normal” and what is “different”? What is masculine and what is feminine?

The exhibiting artists will respond through their images, sharing an irreverent, ironic, and unabashed resistance against stereotypes and repressive classifications. In their works, pleasure, desire, and beauty become pliable matter—capable of taking on entirely different forms and pushing past the frame of socially acceptable representation.