Jacopo Benassi at Palazzo Ducale, Genoa

JACOPO BENASSI - LIBERO

Curated by Francesco Zanot
July – September 2025
Loggia degli Abati, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa

With the most comprehensive exhibition ever dedicated to his work, Palazzo Ducale delves into the world of Jacopo Benassi—named Artist of the Year by Artribune magazine. The show brings together the full spectrum of Benassi’s most iconic subjects: from portraits and the underground music scene to mundane everyday objects and fragments of nature.

Focusing on the artist’s recent production, the exhibition traces the pivotal stages that led to the development of his distinctive, multifaceted visual language—a unique blend of photography, sculpture, and performance. Through a series of large-scale installations, which interweave some of Benassi’s most celebrated works with new, previously unseen pieces, the exhibition offers a profound reflection on the role of photography today and its ability to confront and withstand the pressures of the contemporary world.

Images are cut, overlapped, inverted, or concealed within an installation display specifically designed for the spaces of Palazzo Ducale. This provokes viewers to seek their own perspective while simultaneously challenging their expectations. In an era of hyper-visibility, Benassi paradoxically uses photography as an ambiguous and opaque tool—not merely to reveal the world but to shatter it into a series of dark, unpredictable visions poised between appearance and disappearance.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of live performances taking place in a specially dedicated area within the show.

The project is preceded by an artist residency at Palazzo Ducale, launched through a call for proposals by the Italian Ministry of Culture. The selected organization, Blu Breeding and Learning Unit, will produce a photographic work during the residency that will be included in the exhibition and later donated to the Museum of Contemporary Art at Villa Croce. During the residency, Jacopo Benassi will also lead talks, workshops with students, and a public performance.