Pordenone is preparing to become one of the hubs for international photography. From November 22, 2025 to April 6, 2026, the Friulian city will host a new season of exhibitions featuring Robert Doisneau, Olivia Arthur, Seiichi Furuya, and Stefanie Moshammer. The exhibitions will be staged in three main spaces: the Harry Bertoia Gallery, the Ricchieri Civic Art Museum and the new Pordenone Cultural Markets. This is a multi-year cultural journey that looks ahead to 2027, the year in which Pordenone will be the Italian Capital of Culture, and has chosen as its main theme the theme of reading, a term that reflects the history and identity of a city traditionally capable of interpreting Italian economic and social transformations.
The project, promoted by the City of Pordenone, produced and organized by Suazes, takes shape after an important preview: the exhibition Inge Morath. My Stories, currently on view through Nov. 16, 2025, which allowed for the exploration of lesser-known aspects of the Austrian photographer’s work. This first experience is part of a design in which photography becomes a tool for initiating dialogues between great masters of the 20th century and contemporary authors, creating correspondences between different eras and sensibilities. The programming falls within the official dossier of Pordenone 2027 and the format Verso Capitale italiana della Cultura 2027, confirming the multi-year dimension of the project. The exhibitions intend to open up to a network of collaborations with national and international institutions, with a view to comparison and shared cultural development. The aim is to read the present through the lessons of the past, building perspectives for the future.
The first event will be dedicated to Robert Doisneau (1912-1994), among the most recognizable photographers of the 20th century. The Harry Bertoia Civic Gallery will host more than 100 images spanning the French master’s entire career, from the 1930s to his latest works. The exhibition, curated by Gabriel and Chantal Bauret, was created in collaboration with Atelier Doisneau in Paris and the Artea Foundation. It will feature his best-known shots, characterized by a poetic and ironic gaze capable of capturing the everyday vitality of Paris, from cafes to working-class neighborhoods to the intimate and spontaneous moments that have made his work famous. In addition to the best-known dimension of his production, the exhibition will also offer an in-depth look at his commissioned works, particularly those he created for large French companies. Prominent in this context are the photographs taken in 1945 at the textile factory in Aubusson, commissioned by Le Point magazine, documenting working-class life and industrial processes. This nucleus of images makes it possible to create a direct link with the textile history of the Pordenone area, where the sector played a decisive role in local economic development.
At the same time, the program is enriched by a look at contemporary photography. Also opening on Nov. 22, 2025 will be a project devoted to Olivia Arthur, a British photographer born in 1980 who is known for her documentary approach and a visual language that explores the margins of society. A member of the Magnum Photos agency since 2013 and winner of the Inge Morath Prize in 2007, Arthur focuses her work on themes such as identity, culture and the female condition. In Pordenone she will develop two distinct exhibition itineraries. At the Museo Civico Ricchieri she will present Murmurings of the Skin, research that addresses the relationship with the body and the skin, understood as the boundary between human and technology, but also as the surface of wounds, resistance and inner battles. At the same time, the spaces of the Pordenone Cultural Markets will display his five editorial projects, created in recent years, which document his visual and narrative research path.
The Ricchieri Civic Museum itself will host an additional chapter of programming. From November 22, 2025 until the end of January 2026, Japanese photographer Seiichi Furuya, born in 1950, will be featured. His work is deeply connected to the memory of his wife Christine Gössler and the reworking of her loss. The Face to Face project, the concluding chapter of the Mémoires series, will be presented in Pordenone. The exhibition will place Furuya’s photographs in dialogue with those taken by Christine herself, offering a complex reflection on the relationship between private life, grief and memory. For the author, photography becomes a tool for processing grief, constructing a shared memory and investigating the individual’s role within the relationship.
From February through April 6, 2026, the same spaces will host the work of Austrian photographer Stefanie Moshammer, born in 1988. Her work is characterized by an interweaving of personal experience and social observation, with a focus on themes of identity, memory and gender roles. In Pordenone she will present a journey that begins with memories of her grandparents who lived in Mühlviertel, Upper Austria. Photographs, objects and stories related to that simple, creative and resourceful life become the basis for an investigation that reflects on old age, daily rituals and the transience of existence. Moshammer reworks this family heritage in front of the lens, transforming it into a web of visual metaphors that explore the value of ordinary things and the continuity of memory. The project will also involve the spaces of the Pordenone Cultural Markets, further expanding the narrative dimension of the exhibition. The entire cycle of exhibitions confirms Pordenone’s desire to consolidate a cultural path that does not limit itself to hosting temporary exhibitions, but aspires to build a stable tradition of dialogue between the visual arts, the territory and the public.
 |
| Pordenone opens a season of photography exhibitions toward 2027 |
Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
