The exhibition design for Fotografica 2025, hosted within the Monastero del Carmine and the Ex Ateneo in Bergamo Alta, was conceived as a fluid and immersive journey, guiding visitors naturally from one space to another and from one story to the next. The fifth edition of the festival, entitled “As Brave As We Can”, explored the theme of courage through the stories of people able to choose, protect and act within complex social, political and geographical contexts. Migration, identity, freedom and integration become the recurring themes of a collective narrative in which photography serves as a means of testimony and reflection.

On the ground floor of the Monastero del Carmine, the cloister forms the heart of the exhibition route. The photographs engage in a direct dialogue with the historic architecture through a series of freestanding timber structures positioned around the existing columns, while a sequence of images displayed along the portico accompanies visitors through the space. On the upper floor, timber frames clad in white geotextile temporarily reshape the monastery interiors, creating a sequence of more intimate spaces, each dedicated to a different artist. These new partitions define a continuous and guided route while preserving the legibility and material character of the existing architecture. At the Ex Ateneo, the exhibition design takes on a more open and flexible configuration. A sequence of inclined display supports, arranged in alternating directions, creates a dynamic and fluid route in which the photographs establish visual relationships with one another, allowing visitors to form their own connections between the different stories on display.