(Viareggio, 1982. Based in Turin)
Photographer, artist, educator and curator.
Her works have been presented in museums, exhibition spaces and photography festivals, in Italy and abroad.
She develops artistic researches and freelances as documentary photographer, mainly collaborating with artistic and cultural institutions.
Co-founder and curator of JEST, independent space which promotes contemporary photographic culture through exhibitions, projects, residencies and educational activities.
Curator and lecturer for Futuri Prossimi, high educational and production programme.
Lecturer at IED Torino, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Accademia Novalia, and educator and tutor in various projects.
Co-founder of Fluxlab–integrated arts laboratory, no profit organization which realizes and coordinates cultural and artistic projects.
Her work focuses on the analysis of social, environmental and economic mechanisms and processes that develop and take shape in places and through history. It investigates themes such as inhabiting—from the domestic to landscape scale—the organization of spaces and the relations that develop in and within places and ecologies, with attention to political and environmental aspects and their impact on people's lives.
EXHIBITIONS (selection)
2025
UN:IT. Fotografie del patrimonio immateriale, Gibellina Photo Road Festival, Gibellina (IT)
Terradipassaggio/Durchgangsland (solo show), Foto Forum, Bolzano (IT)
2024
Museo in libera uscita, ARTECO and MAET–Museo di Antropologia ed Etnografia di Torino, public libraries, Turin (IT)
2022
Focus of Future, Musei Reali, Turin (IT)
Piccolo come un nido, grande come il mondo, MUFOCO–Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Cinisello Balsamo, Milan (IT)
Eyes On Tomorrow, Zoma Museum, Addis Abeba (ETH)
In search of Beauty, Rovinj Photodays Festival, Rovinj (HR)
2021
OMNEFEST, Castelfranco Veneto (IT)
L'inizio del futuro, Photolux Festival, Lucca (IT)
Open walls Arles, 1854 Media and British Journal of Photography, Arles (FR)
2019
Not so far, Biennale Democrazia, Torino (IT)
2018
ABITANTI. Sette sguardi sull'Italia di oggi, La Triennale, Milano (IT)
Cura, CAMERA, Torino (IT)
2017
Athens Photo Festival, The Photobook Exhibition, Athens (GR)
Stress the archive! (projection), Camera, Torino (IT)
2016
Premio Fabbri, Pieve di Soligo (IT)
Fossili Urbani, Festival della Scienza (solo show), Natural History Museum G. Doria, Genova (IT)
Residenza Alpina, Arteco, Alta Valle Cervo (IT)
Fossili Urbani (solo show), Natural Sciences Museum, Bergamo (IT)
Fossili Urbani (solo show), Natural History Museum, Trieste (IT)
2015
Fossili Urbani (solo show), MuSe - Museo delle Scienze, Trento (IT)
The Others Fair, Turin (IT)
Autofocus7, Turin (IT)
Coste e fiumi: paesaggi in mutazione, Casa dell'Architettura, Roma (IT)
2014
Circulation(s) festival de la Jeune Photographie Européenne (projection), Centquatre, Paris (FR)
Frames, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, Scotland (UK)
Centro-Periferia, Terme di Diocleziano National Museum, Roma (IT)
Territories en images, Institut de Geographie, Paris (FR)
2013
As a fallen apartment building (solo show), Bild Studio, Turin (IT)
Mediterranea 16, Young Artists Biennal, Ancona (IT)
Approdo al futuro, Palazzo Orlando, Livorno (IT)
As a fallen apartment building_Francesca Cirilli | In the Jungle of cities_Laura Fiorio (double solo show), Dom Kulture gallery, Kamnik, Slovenia (SI)
Le rovine esposte, OGR, Torino (IT)
Fotografia Europea, Giovane Fotografia Italiana#2, Reggio Emilia (IT)
2012
Open studios, GlogauAIR, Berlin (DE)
L'architettura del Mondo, La Triennale, Milan (IT)
Combat Prize, Museo Fattori, Livorno (IT)
2011
SI Fest, Paesaggi instabili, Savignano sul Rubicone (IT)
Turin-Earth. Città e nuove migrazioni, Museo della Resistenza, Turin (IT)
2010
Mountain Photo Festival, Open your mountains, Aosta (IT)
2008
Francesca Cirilli | Fatma Bucak (double solo show), Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Warsaw, Poland (PL)
Young Italian Photography, Media Art Gallery, Warsaw, Poland (PL)
RFC-Rapallo Fotografia Contemporanea, Rapallo (IT)
RESIDENCIES AND PHOTOGRAPHIC CAMPAIGNS
UN:IT, photographic campaign for UNESCO and ICCD, MiC, 2024
Terredipassaggio, Foto Forum, Bolzano
Piccolo come un nido, grande come il mondo, MUFOCO – Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, 2022
OMNE, Castelfranco Veneto, 2018-19
ABITARE, MUFOCO – Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, 2018
Dintorno, Passi Erratici, 2017
Residenza Alpina, Arteco, 2015
Fotografia nel Parco dell'Appennino, 2015
Identity of Metropolitan Turin, Torino Strategica/Torino Internazionale, 2014
GlogauAir – Artist in Residence, Berlin, 2012
Open Your Mountains residency, Mountain Photo Festival, Courmayeur, 2008
AWARDS AND GRANTS
#RaccontoPlurale, Fondazione per l'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, 2020 – Winner
ABITARE, MUFOCO–Museo Fotografia Contemporanea, Mibact, La Triennale Milano, 2018 – Winner
Premio Pesaresi 2017 – Finalist
Premio Fabbri 2016 – Finalist
Autofocus, 2015 – Special mention
Identità della Torino Metropolitana, 2014 – Research grant
Giovane Fotografia Italiana #2, Fotografia Europea, 2013 – Selected artist
Combat Prize, Under 35, 2012 – Winner
Situa.to, 2010 – Research grant
National Geographic International competition, 2010 – Shortlisted
Italian Wave, Artissima, 2008 – Shortlisted
Young Photoghraphy, IV° Wasaw Artistic Photography Festival, 2008 – Special Mention
IED Torino – scholarship
COLLECTIONS
ICCD – Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione (ongoing acquisition)
MUFOCO – Museo Fotografia Contemporanea
PhotoLux Festival digital collection, Lucca
Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University, Cambridge
PUBLICATIONS (selection)
Un’estate fa, CTRL Books, 2022
Beauty, Skinnerboox, 2021
222 Emerging Artists worth investing on, Exibart, 2021
#RaccontoPlurale, Fondazione per l'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, 2021
The best is yet to come, curated by Arteco, Primp, 2019
Fossili Urbani, Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, 2015
Identità della Torino metropolitana, curated by O. Gambari, ArteSera, 2014
Luogo e identità nella fotografia italiana contemporanea, (ed.) Roberta Valtorta, Einaudi, 2013
TERRITORIO, n°66 anno 2013, Dip. Architettura e Studi Urbani, Politecnico di Milano, ed. Franco Angeli
Domus, “As a fallen apartment building”, 2013
CURATORIAL ACTIVITY
See JEST
TEACHING AND MENTORING
IED Torino
CSC - Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, Scuola di Animazione
Libera Accademia d’Arte Novalia
a.titolo / Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte contemporanea
BJCEM
Arteco / Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli
JEST and Fluxlab
EDUCATION
2026 MA Visual Arts (Arts, Museology and Curatorship–international curriculum), University of Bologna
2010 Situa.to – arts for public space, curated by a.titolo, Turin
2009 BA Photography, IED Torino
2006 Degree Contemporary History, University of Pisa (final thesis on "The Ecological Debt")
2001-2003 Natural Sciences, University of Pisa