Rome, photographer Alba Zari at the Pastificio Cerere Foundation with the exhibition

In Rome, the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere presents FEAR OF MIRRORS, a solo exhibition by Alba Zari curated by Francesco Rombaldi and realized with the support of the EuropeanUnion under the Creative Europe program, as part of the European project Intergalactica. The exhibition will be open to the public until Thursday, June 26, 2025.

Alba Zari uses photography as a tool for exploration and self-analysis, questioning the power of the image as trace, clue, proof, but also its ambiguous and deceptive nature. Behind an apparent scientific rigor lies a deep poetic sensibility through which he investigates the themes of memory and identity. His nomadic childhood, spent in different cities and countries, has shaped his gaze and his artistic practice. Travel has become an essential element of his visual research, which addresses complex social issues: from studies on mental health centers in Italy after the Basaglia Law, to reflections on eating disorders rooted in American society.

For her solo exhibition at the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Alba Zari explores the attraction to one’s own reflection, an ancestral call that represents the first step toward self-awareness. Recognizing ourselves in the mirror restores boundaries, shapes and colors to the image we have of ourselves. But what happens when the mirror turns into a screen? From this premise comes FEAR OF MIRRORS, a project that explores the dynamics of representation in the digital age. Through a visual and conceptual journey, Alba Zari investigates the relationship between image, identity and cultural conditioning, questioning how new technologies influence the perception of the self.

The exhibition takes the form of an immersive experience, a flow of images and reflections that questions contemporary visual and social constructions. Through a plurality of languages and references, the artist invites the viewer to question what we define as authentic and how free or shaped by external gazes our image really is. FEAR OF MIRRORS is not meant to offer definitive answers, but it opens a discussion about our digital present: has the mirror finally shattered or are we still prisoners of its reflection?

Born in Bangkok in 1987, Alba Zari graduated from DAMS in Bologna and continued her education with an intensive course in Documentary Photography at theInternational Center of Photography in New York. She then pursued a Master’s degree in Photography and Visual Design at NABA in Milan. Her most recent works include Fear of Mirrors (2023-2024) and Rakshasa (2023-2024), as well as Occult (2019-2023), a visual investigation into the propaganda of the “Children of God” sect, which led her to follow the traces of her mother’s past between India, Nepal and Thailand. In The Y - Research of Biological Father (2017), she turned the search for the father she never knew into a journey to her own origins. Places (2015), a book and photo project made with ElementWo, analyzes the visual communication ofISIS, while the short film FreiKörperKultur (2021) was presented at the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week. Currently, she is engaged in the making of her first feature-length documentary film, White Lies. With the project The Y, she was selected among Foam Talents 2020. Her works have been exhibited at prestigious international festivals and museums, including MAXXI in Rome, the London Art Fair, Circulation Paris and theAthens Photo Festival. He has received numerous awards, including the Backlight Prize(Finland), the Graziadei Prize (Italy) and theImages Vevey Jury Prize(Switzerland). His works are part of important public and private collections, including the Fotomuseum Winterthur, MAXXI, the Orestiadi Foundation and the Donata Pizzi Collection. In 2022 he received the Special Jury Prize at Images Vevey with the project Occult, after winning the Graziadei Prize in 2021 and second place at the Backlight Prize in 2020.

For all information, you can visit the official website of Pastificio Cerere.

Pictured: Alba Zari, Polycam 1

Rome, photographer Alba Zari at the Pastificio Cerere Foundation with the exhibition

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