Born and raised in Milan, Giulia Bersani became interested in photography during the final years of high school. This interest emerged from a profound fear of death and the passage of time; the idea of capturing precious moments of life reassured her, allowing her to preserve their value. Over the years, she has worked on various personal projects, developing an intimate and raw style characterized by her choice to shoot exclusively on film. She later sought to bring the same authenticity and sensitivity to her commissioned work.
Skin by Giulia Bersani – the first solo exhibition of the new cycle The Body I Live In, dedicated to contemporary photography and conceived by Irene Alison, curated by Irene Alison and Paolo Cagnacci – places the body at the center of the lens as a boundary for claiming identity, a means of understanding the world, a pivot around which we build relationships, and a cry of rebellion. The body is sensitive matter, fertile ground, a shifting landscape. Giulia Bersani approaches it with her gaze – unafraid, unashamed. Close, very close, inside the folds of skin, in the scars, through… hair, between the legs. There is nothing reassuring about her rebellious bodies: they defy norms, expectations, the anxiety of judgment, and the tyranny of definitions. They are neither smooth nor compliant. They are naked and hungry – for life, for intimacy, for freedom. And they don’t care about anything else.
These are bodies that pulse, gasp, cry. Crossroads of desire and passion, fluid bodies made of fluids: sweat, blood, and saliva. At 32, Giulia tells their story by becoming part of them – entering their beds and their embraces – through the physicality (a word and expressive choice that is anything but casual in a project rooted in flesh and substance) of analog photography.
Her work, which has gained visibility in recent years also through her following on Instagram, carries a raw, visceral energy that makes no compromises – neither with the platform’s censorship nor with the glossy, smoothed-over aesthetics we’ve come to internalize.
