Artist Talk: Federica Mambrini, Vittorio Mortarotti

Artist Talk: Federica Mambrini, Vittorio Mortarotti, Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2025

Federica Mambrini and Vittorio Mortarotti present two independent projects with fascinating points of connection in a conversation moderated by Stefano Riba.

L’albergo della lontananza by Mambrini, currently on view at Foto Forum, investigates architectural and biographical situations to define the limits of photography and architecture in relation to translation and distance. The project, developed between 2020 and 2024 in Italy and Chile, was supported by the 2023 Italian Council research grant for young talents.

El Viaje by Mortarotti is also set in Chile, in Tierra del Fuego, and reflects on themes of exploration, human presence (or absence) in extreme border zones, conquered lands, lost languages, and memories to be reconstructed. Initiated in 2022, the project is now supported by Strategia Fotografia 2024, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture. In November 2025, it will enter a new residency phase in Puerto Williams, Chile, with presentations in Santiago and Valparaíso.

The dialogue between the two artists will highlight the importance they both attach to research phases and long-term projects. It will also delve into themes common to both works: geographical marginalities, memory and its narration, and translation—understood both between languages and between places and perspectives.

Vittorio Mortarotti has exhibited in major museums and international events such as Mois de la Photo, Paris; Manifesta 9, Genk; Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia; the Benaki Museum, Athens; the Arsenal, Metz; the Casino, Luxembourg; the Nanjo Art Museum, Okinawa; and the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo. In 2015, together with Anush Hamzehian, he won the Leica Prize at the Biennale Images in Vevey with the series “Eden”, later shown at the Blue Project Foundation in Barcelona, the Maxxi in Rome, and Foto Forum in Bolzano. He is the author of numerous publications, all published by Skinnerboox. Together with Hamzehian, he has produced four documentary films presented at festivals and cinemas worldwide. He is a member of the Futures Photography Platform and teaches photography at NABA in Milan.

Federica Mambrini graduated in architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and completed the Master in Photography at IUAV. Her visual research revolves around attempts to sabotage balances and tensions, adopting an interdisciplinary approach. She has participated in several artist residencies, the most recent in the Atacama Desert with LaWayakaCurrent. Her first research project “Come costruire un castello di carte” was published by Giostre Edizioni. Selected as one of the winners of the Italian Council in 2023 and as a finalist of the Castelfiorentino Prize for the Arts in 2024, she took part in several solo and group exhibitions between 2023 and 2025, including a solo show at the Museo de Historia Natural in Valparaíso (Chile), a solo exhibition at Mutty (Mantua), and a group show at JEST (Turin). She lives and works between Turin, Milan, and Mantua.