Opening | 2.09.2025 | Federica Mambrini & Valeria Simonini

Federica-Mambrini – L’albergo della lontananza / Far Far Stay, Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2025

Federica Mambrini – L’albergo della lontananza / Far Far Stay

Foto Forum is pleased to present L’albergo della lontananza / Far Far Stay by Federica Mambrini and One like many others. A visual journey through railwaymen’s homes by Valeria Simonini, featuring images by Luca Matassoni. Presented independently on the two gallery floors, both exhibitions focus on the relationship between people and the human-made environments they inhabit.

Federica Mambrini presents, on the lower floor, the extended version of L’albergo della lontananza / Far Far Stay. The project was first shown to the public in 2024 with exhibitions at the Museo de Historia Natural and Parque Cultural de Valparaíso in Chile, as well as at Spazio Mutty in Castiglione delle Stiviere (MN), Italy. In this phase, it was supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture as part of the 12th edition of the Italian Council (Talent Development section) and exhibited.

For the Foto Forum exhibition, Mambrini presents an enriched version including over one hundred photographs, two new installation interventions, and a display specifically designed for the occasion.

L’albergo della lontananza / Far Far Stay unfolds between Italy and Chile and is based on architectural situations that the artist either investigated or created specifically to explore the limits of photography and architecture in relation to translation and distance. The “in-between” space is, by definition, what lies between various possibilities. When different elements come into contact, they influence and overlap with one another, creating new hybrid forms. Translation is one of these processes, in which different contaminations give rise to a moment of encounter, generating unique expressions and understandings.
 Distance is the space between two people, united by a romantic relationship but separated across continents, who attempt to draw closer by analyzing the space that separates them.
 The exhibition presents five scenarios: the bridge, the two squares, the room/the doubt, the kiss, and the desert.

Federica Mambrini (1994, Mantua) graduated in Architecture from Politecnico di Milano (2019) and completed a Master in Photography at IUAV (2021). Her visual research explores attempts to disrupt balances and tensions through an interdisciplinary approach.
 With a background in architecture, she is interested in everything that is built, to be built, or to be deconstructed. She has participated in several artist residencies, most recently in the Atacama Desert with LaWayakaCurrent. Her first research project, Come costruire un castello di carte, was published by Giostre Edizioni.
 In 2023, she was among the winners of the Italian Council. In 2024, she was shortlisted for the Castelfiorentino Art Prize. From 2023 to 2025, she took part in several exhibitions, both solo and group, including a solo show at the Museo de Historia Natural in Valparaíso (Chile), a solo show at Mutty (Mantua), and a group show at JEST (Turin). She lives and works between Turin, Milan, and Mantua.

Valeria Simonini – One like many others. A visual journey through railwaymen’s homes 

Valeria Simonini – Una come tante, Foto: Luca Matassoni, Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2025

One like many others. A visual journey through railwaymen’s homes  is a photographic installation based on Valeria Simonini’s historical and visual research, which recounts the serial architecture of the South Tyrolean railway workers’ houses. The project was launched in 2023 as part of Bolzanism POP UP, an artistic residency promoted by Bolzanism Museum – the first museum dedicated to the popular architecture of Bolzano and the stories of those who live there. Photographer Luca Matassoni collaborated on the territorial narrative project.

The images, presented on the ground floor of Foto Forum, recount the journey along the Bolzano–Brenner railway line in search of the railway workers’ houses designed by architect Angiolo Mazzoni in the 1930s as part of a public housing plan for Italian State Railway personnel. The exploration starts and ends in the Piani district of Bolzano, which was also part of the urban design that envisaged the repetition, at almost every railway stop in South Tyrol, of a standardised housing model – available in three types – designed by the then chief engineer for the State Railways. Twenty-three stops near active and disused railway stations to find the railway workers’ houses and observe how these spaces – designed in series – have been transformed over time through the use and care of the people who live in them. Almost a century later, One like many others recounts the tension that permeates these places: on the one hand, the repetitiveness of the buildings, the result of a dirigiste approach to urban design; on the other, the domestic strategies of personalisation employed by the people who live there.

Valeria Simonini (1996, Rovereto) is an architect and curates artistic and cultural projects that explore different forms of territorial storytelling and promote community participation through horizontal dialogue and design practices.
Her academic and professional path spans Italy – where she graduated from IUAV Venice – and Germany, working in cultural associations, traditional and experimental theaters, and design studios. 
She approaches architecture and the arts in an intertwined way, investigating in particular the relationship between curatorial practices and territorial representation, especially in highland areas undergoing touristification.
 She is co-founder of Studio Combo, dedicated to cultural design, and author and project manager for the association LUMEN slowjournal in Rovereto.