Michele Palazzi
The Roman Garden
5 February - 11 February 2020


Finisterrae is an ongoing and multi-chaptered project about Southern European identity and the state of crisis that it is in.

The first chapter was focused on the ancient region on Lusitania in today’s Portugal, this chapter deals with contemporary Italy. The difference between the European North and the South has intesified over the last decades with the South being considered mainly for its economic difficulties. This has led to the perception of “the South” as an entity, which is actually not new. So, in this part Michele has set out to investigate the common origins of the Mediterranean and the construction of a political Europe.

Michele approach is an aesthetic reflection through the lines of the ancient Roman world as represented in art. By this, he take visual elements and use them as metaphors and symbols for creating a fictional atmosphere, which could as well be real. The temporal and the spatial dimension are deconstructed and this leads to a certain sense of disorientation, which could be considered a first outcome of his analysis.

The wold is out of joint.

Michele Palazzi (b. 1984, Rome, Italy) is a photographer represented by Contrasto Agency and Academic Coordinator at the Rome University of Fine Arts (RUFA) and World Press Photo winner.

His work deals with current social issues through a subjective approach. Michele’s projects confront the contemporary man with his origins, through a look that investigates the past in order to interpret the present.

His book FINISTERRÆ: terra di confine was published in 2019 and was edited and curated by Origini Edizioni and Leporello.