Soul Revealed?
Photographic exhibition
by Roberto Cavallini
portraying
Monica Pirone
Curated by the Officinenove Collective
under the patronage of Municipio Roma IV
October 11 – November 5, 2025
Open October 11 at 6:00 pm
Makeup artist Asia Ruvo
Officinenove Studio
Via del Casale Galvani 9, Rome
Free admission
In the silent dialogue between photography and visual art, photographer Roberto Cavallini meets artist Monica Pirone, offering through his lens an intimate reading of her creative universe. The images do not merely document, but also provide a space for comparison and resonance: Cavallini interprets the artist in relation to her works, exploring the subtle boundary where the gaze of one meets the vision of the other. An encounter between languages that listen, reflect, and contaminate one another.
"...The meeting had taken place, even if my failing memory had made it vanish into a hazy fog of thoughts and mutilated memories. That first meeting is documented by a photograph taken without either of us knowing, never recalled in our subsequent conversations—nothing compromising, of course—we were simply side by side while observing some works on display in an exhibition. But the real meeting, the one made of mutual glances, of few words, of my surprise at his works, his sculptures like necklaces, is not documented by any photograph, but has remained firmly in the memory of both of us, with the promise of a meeting, of a reflection on his work as an artist, on my way of seeing and being involved in it." (Roberto Cavallini)
In this visual exchange, the artist's body becomes an integral part of the narrative: not just a portrayed subject, but a living presence that inhabits the space of the work. Cavallini captures gestures, expressions, and silences, creating a narrative of intuitions and revelations. His photographs don't describe, but evoke, revealing the complexity of the creative process and the poetic power that emerges from it.
"...When I met the photographer Roberto Cavallini, he was immediately intrigued by some of my jewelry pieces I was wearing. They were related to exhibition projects created with various papers, in preparation for a solo show at the Biblioteca Vallicelliana. The idea of being portrayed wearing those works genuinely frightened me. Without revealing my fears, I let months pass, avoiding the subject every time I met him." (Monica Pirone)
Each shot thus becomes a threshold, a passage between two worlds that observe and question each other. The encounter between Cavallini and Pirone is not merely a representation, but a shared experience, where art becomes a bridge between different identities.
“...These photos portray a me I didn't know. Some reveal things I hadn't understood, in others I don't recognize myself at all: I should now replace the image I have of myself in my mind with a new one. In some I look like the child I was, in others I am as Roberto sees me, and perhaps that is precisely where my trust in him lies. They tell many stories, all very complex: they speak of acceptance, collaboration, trust, professionalism, discipline, work, creativity, play, relationships, care, love.” (Monica Pirone)
“...If the painful, constant embrace of the world is inseparable from the artist, then the artist herself is a work of art.
How can we approach such a dazzling subject, who, when she recounts her life, the genesis of her works, almost with the voice of a young girl, declares her painful, constant embrace of the world?
We enter into a dialogue, and each photograph cannot help but be the visual product of a synthesis between self-knowledge and self-recognition.” (Roberto Cavallini)
Info: officinenove@gmail.com rbrt.cavallini@gmail.com
