From May 27 to July 27, 2025, Pavilion 9b of the Rome Mattatoio presents PORTO ROMA. Mohamed Keita, promoted by Assessorato alla Cultura di Roma Capitale and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, organized by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo in collaboration with Mosaico Studio, curated by Carmen Pilotto. The exhibition tells the story of the city of Rome through the unique gaze of Mohamed Keita, a young photographer born in the Ivory Coast who now lives and works between Rome and Bamako(Mali). His images, alien to clichés and glossy representations, lead into a universe of hidden details, intimate cityscapes and human presences that tell stories of everyday life and resilience.
Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in Keita’s continuous wanderings through Rome, in search of the subject to be immortalized, to discover it on a human scale, with its imperfections, wonders and secrets.
The title of the exhibition, Porto Roma, reflects the photographer’s personal vision, giving back to the public the Rome experienced by Keita through his research: not only the eternal city but the port of the soul, where the ancient dialogues with the present, humanity merges with the silence of spaces. The exhibition, as a whole, is a portrait of Rome: port of welcome, a place open to those who arrive from outside, as happened to the photographer, but also a point of departure for those who leave it, like the Romans who left; a place where time flows and is intertwined with the lives of those who live there and pass through it, at the same time home, refuge and stage of encounters.
The exhibition begins with some of the photographs taken by Keita during his first ten years in Rome and collected in the volume Roma 10/20. The exhibition continues with his most recent photographic research, which documents his incessant return to the same places to capture their changes and suggestions: each photograph becomes a meditation on time and the changes that transform places, on the fleeting shadows that tell different stories, on the faces that blend into the landscape, redefining it. His flâneur’s gaze transforms every urban glimpse into a work to be contemplated. The spontaneity of the shot, the play of light and shadow, the often overlooked details become key elements of his visual poetics.
The portraits presented are pivotal points of an artistic and personal map of the capital. Through these shots Rome is revealed in its complexity and cultural richness, offering authentic and ever-changing content. The symbolic starting point is Termini Station, a key place for Keita, having been the first space she experienced upon her arrival in Rome. His first photograph was taken right here, and the project rereads the places of his Roman experience, expanding from the center to the suburbs, telling the story of a deeply stratified and multiethnic city. Before-After, on the other hand, was born out of an urgency to document changes in places and things day by day. Keita repeatedly returns to the same places, capturing their transformations and the effects of light and the passage of time on the urban landscape, bringing past and present into dialogue.
The exhibition is accompanied by a Drago Editions catalog, with texts by Massimiliano Smeriglio, Marco Delogu, Luigi Bartone and Felice Castrignanò, curator Carmen Pilotto and plates of the images on display.
Mohamed Keita, born in the Ivory Coast, is a young photographer who now lives and works between Rome and Bamako (Mali). He studied at theRoberto Rossellini Cine-TV Institute and the Exusphoto school of photography. His artistic career started at an early age: he began collaborating with various associations, foundations and schools such as Action for Children in Conflict, Fondazione Pianoterra ETS and Fondazione Paolo Bulgari. His photographic works have been exhibited in many cultural contexts, both in Italy and abroad, including the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato, MACRO in Rome and the Italian Cultural Institutes in London and New York. Among the solo exhibitions we can mention Piedi, scarpe e bagagli at the Chamber of Deputies in Rome in 2012, La mostra che non esiste (The exhibition that does not exist) at the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome in 2014, Refugees at theFrench Institute in Krakow in 2017, Nel pensiero, nello sguardo at MAD - Murate Art District in Florence in 2019 and Women and Girls in Sub-Saharan Africa at United Nations Headquartered in New York in 2022. Group exhibitions include Portraits for the 13th edition of Fotografia - Festival Internazionale di Roma at Museo MACRO in 2014, Rothko in Lampedusa at Palazzo Querini in Venice in 2019 and La memoria del dolore at Museo Nazionale Romano Terme di Diocleziano in Rome in 2021, participation in Photolux Festival in Lucca in 2019 and Verzasca Photographic Festival in Sonogno in 2019. He has received various awards such as the young/old photographer award at the PhC-CapalbioFotografia Festival, given by Josef Koudelka in 2015, the SUFA (Stand Up For Africa) award, founded by Paolo Fabiani and Rossella Del Sere, in 2019, and the best photographer award for theUniversities Network for Children in Armed Conflict in 2021. He has also participated in several workshops, including Seeds for Future Memories in Tambacounda, Senegal, in 2018, and Kaleidoscope, shimmering gazes with Mohamed Keita, at the Pecci Museum in Prato in 2018 and 2019. His main projects include Studio KENE, a permanent photography laboratory founded in Bamako, Mali, in 2017, and in Rome in 2022, with the support of the BETA ETS Foundation. This workshop was born from the idea of giving back what he had learned to other young people in Africa, to offer an alternative to the street and travel. Photography for Keita is based above all on an idea of sharing, which is why this space is not only a photography workshop, but also a space for sharing and social relations.
For all information, you can visit the official website of the Slaughterhouse.
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| Rome, young African photographer Mohamed Keita's exhibition at the Slaughterhouse: "I Bring Rome" |
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