Only a few days left to visit, in the spaces of mondoromulo arte contemporanea gallery in Castelvenere, Alessandro Trapezio’s exhibition “Now I see you, now you see me” curated by Francesco Creta. The exhibition presents two projects by the La Spezia-born photographer, placing them in relation to each other on the question of the gaze. In “Closer”, a homage to the series of photos taken by Dino Pedriali of Pasolini, we are the ones spying on performer Gaia Ginevra Giorgi, while in the glossy magazine posters from the series “Power, Corruption & Lies” we find ourselves assailed by the models’ gaze until we feel their eyes upon us. The gaze and the voyeuristic element are the fundamental principle on which these projects meet and clash in a continuous reversal of roles where one passes from a passive to an active attitude in an instant.
Alessandro Trapezio, “Now I see you, now you see me”, installation view at mondoromulo arte contemporanea, ph. courtesy Alessandro Trapezio e mondoromulo arte contemporanea
Trapezio breaks the canons of the model-photographer relationship by presenting first and foremost the connection created in the work, rather than the aesthetic and technical perfection of a pose, where through the gaze the right moment to shoot is decided. His is a narrative that speaks through expressions and never falls into the objectification of the subject, who always remains master of their own portrait. The curatorial text, signed by Giulia Giacomelli, is a five-way dialogue with some of the people who posed for Alessandro, a fitting choice to help the viewer immerse themselves in the exhibition emotionally and (why not) politically as well. The choice of a title that mirrors itself becomes programmatic, this is an exhibition that lives in contradiction where the only constant remains following the gaze, that of the photographer, the model, or whoever is visiting the exhibition. Alessandro’s work is one of the worlds that I have had the opportunity, over time, to approach and observe in multiple directions; sometimes silently and on tiptoe, sometimes in an almost shouted walk through the folds of his photographic binders. His work touches different aspects of the human being. I thought that a critical gaze was not sufficient for this review, so we decided to dialogue.
Alessandro Trapezio, “Now I see you, now you see me”, installation view at mondoromulo arte contemporanea, ph. courtesy Alessandro Trapezio e mondoromulo arte contemporanea
Sara Papini: Come How did the idea for the exhibition come about and what themes did you want to explore?
Alessandro Trapezio: The idea for the exhibition, “Now I See You, now you see me”, came about with curator Francesco Creta and with mondoromulo gallery. In this solo show we decided to exhibit two of my different projects in total connection and continuity. The first is “Closer”, from 2022: this project was born from a tribute to the historic series by Dino Pedriali and Pier Paolo Pasolini from 1975. In that project, which I did not want to pay homage to slavishly, I am hidden in the dark and portray from outside the window the performer and poet Gaia Ginevra Giorgi, who is initially “only” spied upon, but when she becomes aware of my presence, she in turn looks at me creating a short circuit of gazes between the observer and the observed. The second project, born in 2019, is instead completely unpublished. “Power, Corruption & Lies” is composed of a series of intimate female portraits. They are totally de-eroticized bodies. At the center of the narrative remains only the body, as a political body, and I believe that never more than in this historical moment is the female body the protagonist of this thought. Linking the two projects in this specific exhibition is the gaze, even before the body. The gaze and the voyeuristic element are fundamental for the encounter and clash, in a continuous reversal of roles. The viewer is the first to be literally “looked at” by the subjects..
Alessandro Trapezio, “Now I see you, now you see me”, installation view at mondoromulo arte contemporanea, ph. courtesy Alessandro Trapezio e mondoromulo arte contemporanea
What relationship was established with the gallery and its exhibition spaces?
This is my first experience with a gallery. Flavio Romualdo Garofano (the founder of mondoromulo, editor’s note) and I have known each other for over twenty years, but there had never been the right occasion. So, thanks to this long-standing acquaintance, I must admit that it was very simple to understand each other and immediately find a connection for the realization of the exhibition, and his intuition to have the project curated by Francesco Creta also proved to be a winning one. The gallery is a perfect container for this exhibition. Both Flavio and Francesco gave me ample space for autonomy and immediately grasped what my narrative wanted to be..
Alessandro Trapezio, “Now I see you, now you see me”, installation view at mondoromulo arte contemporanea, ph. courtesy Alessandro Trapezio e mondoromulo arte contemporanea
The printing materials you chose are decidedly out of the ordinary. How did the idea come about?
I’m pleased if the material I used seems “out of the ordinary” to you. I say this because I attach great importance to my research on printing materials: nowadays we print on everything and set up in increasingly sophisticated ways, but sometimes it’s excessive. I just wanted to “return” to what for me was the first experience of a “photographic exhibition” and installation. After all, my posters were the protagonists of the first exhibitions I set up in my bedroom and the magazines from the ’90s-2000s from which I extracted them were my first approach to photography. In a small provincial town like the one I come from, in those years magazines like Max, GQ, Cioè were the best photography I could have access to and the posters were the expression of a language that, in hindsight, could be framed as “male gaze”. So, in this exhibition, I thought it would be interesting to create a short circuit between two contrasting languages: the rigorously folded poster that recalled those magazines and my photos, intimate, with bodies completely devoid of eroticism.
Info:
Alessandro Trapezio. Now I see you, now you see me
Curated by Francesco Creta
11/10/2025 – 10/01/2026
mondoromulo arte contemporanea
Strada Nazionale Sannitica, 169 – Castelvenere (BN)
www.mondoromulo.it
She was born in Genoa but currently lives in Bologna, the city where she graduated from CITEM with a thesis on video art. She works in the world of events in the production sector and is an assistant professor of Visual Studies at UNIBO.
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