IDENTITIES BEYOND BORDERS. The dialogue between human beings and nature in the works of the Farnesina Collection
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On April 9 at 6:00 PM, the exhibition Identities Beyond Borders will open at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris. The exhibition is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Farnesina Collection.
Originally conceived as a traveling exhibition across Berlin, Vilnius, and Valletta, the project has continued its international journey, first arriving in Belgrade and now in Paris, within the historic spaces of the Hôtel de Galliffet. In a city deeply shaped by revolutionary tradition and European cultural debate, the exhibition offers a reflection on how individual and collective identities evolve over time through historical memory, mobility, and processes of cultural translation.
The exhibition path opens with Fibonacci by Mario Merz, a symbolic work of the Farnesina Collection that introduces an organic and interconnected vision of the world. Around this nucleus, three thematic sections unfold: Roots of Resistance, Geographies of Detachment, and Unstable Ecologies.
In the section Roots of Resistance, the body and language become tools of emancipation through the works of Tomaso Binga, Carla Accardi, Ketty La Rocca, Maria Lai, and Elisa Montessori, in dialogue with artists from later generations such as Elena Bellantoni, Silvia Giambrone, Marinella Senatore, and Loredana Di Lillo.
The section Geographies of Detachment explores identity as a mobile and ever-changing condition. For the Paris edition, it is enriched with new works by Marta Roberti and Paola Gandolfi, specifically selected to engage with the spaces of the Institute. In this perspective, geographies are not only physical territories but also inner, psychological, and relational landscapes - emotional terrains in which memory, experience, and imagination continuously redefine the sense of belonging.
Roberti presents for the first time works drawn from the animated video A Bee on a Crying Face (2025), where human and animal figures evoke a relationship of listening and metamorphosis between species. Paola Gandolfi exhibits two photographic series derived from the video In tempo per modifiche temporali e Chiamata urbana urgente, in which the artist stages herself at different stages of life, transforming the body into an archive of memory and identity.
The section Unstable Ecologies addresses the relationship between human beings and the environment through works by Letizia Battaglia, Silvia Camporesi, Elena Mazzi, Laura Pugno, and Iginio De Luca, investigating the landscape as a fragile and constantly evolving ecosystem.
The exhibition concludes with the sound installation of the poem Io sono carta (1976) by Tomaso Binga, which intertwines language, body, and politics in a poetic gesture of resistance. In the Parisian context - marked by the memory of social transformations and 1968 - Binga’s voice resonates as an invitation to rethink identity as a critical and generative space.
Finally, on the occasion of the opening, Paola Gandolfi will present a performance titled À temps pour des variations temporelles, conceived specifically for the exhibition. She will be joined by actress Cristina Spina, in the role of her mother, and Dominique Smersu, portraying her father. The performance stages three generations in dialogue, exploring the complex and layered relationship between family memory and identity.
As the artist states, the bond between mother and daughter is “a material difficult to hold, to shape, to understand: it slips and burns at once… a material that devastates and captivates.” Through the language of performance, Gandolfi transforms this relationship into a symbolic and theatrical gesture that intertwines autobiography, memory, and representation, opening a space for reflection on how identities are constructed through dialogue.
Through the encounter between artists of different generations, Identities Beyond Borders builds a narrative that connects history, memory, and imagination, opening new perspectives on the role of contemporary art in interpreting the transformations of the present.