Humanities Archive

/ Humanities

Home Fetish: a Visual Exploration of Obsession, Comfort, and Domestic Rituals

Through the lens of Lorenzo Venturini: Home Fetish unveils the ambiguous relationship between the self and domestic space, where comfort becomes obsession and everyday objects turn into fetishes

/ Humanities

Twenty years of women’s art revealing the fractures of our time

From trauma to care, absence to collective memory: The Max Mara Art Prize for Women as a space of production, reflection, and resistance in European contemporary art history

/ Humanities

Is being homosexual less polluting than being heterosexual?

A provocation for Pride Month. Human activity pollutes, and bringing children into the world makes things worse: will same-sex couples be the saviours of the Anthropocene?

/ Humanities

Who is the power bottom? – phenomenology and terminology of a sexual role

When it comes to sexual roles in the LGBTQ+ community, the terminology can get slippery. Exploring the meaning of power bottom and the alleged threat to masculinity

/ Humanities

Black Cowboys, Banlieues, and Beyond: Twenty Years of Mohamed Bourouissa

From Paris suburbs to Philadelphia stables, Mohamed Bourouissa interrogates the politics of representation and community in urban peripheries across twenty years of projects

/ Humanities

Lucille Durez: Statues, Bodies, and the Politics of Visibility – Why Monumentality Still Matters

The power of statues lies in their resemblance to us. Any human body could be cast in stone or bronze. Yet, as Judith Butler reminds us, for a body to be monumentalized it must first matter

/ Humanities

Cross Cultural Chairs: The Chair as a Form of Identity and Belonging in the World

Matteo Guarnaccia’s project challenges the global standardization of chair design: postures, materials, and practices shared between artisans, designers, and local communities

/ Humanities

Mathis Chevalier – leave it to an MMA fighter to destroy toxic masculinity

As a teenager, Mathis Chevalier had trouble fitting into the school system. MMA helped him with his anger and frustration, until he decided it was time to deconstruct machismo

/ Humanities

Intertwined: Spyros Rennt baring an evolving vision of intimacy and selfhood

The archiving of softness, Spyros Rennt continues his documentary work, showing a side of queer subculture we haven’t seen from his lens before in his new self-published photobook, Intertwined

/ Humanities

Robin de Puy, beyond the Stereotype: A Dutch Photographer’s Journey Across the States

“I was frustrated with the way Americans are seen from the outside, especially from a European point of view.” Americans emerge as complex individuals with hopes, dreams, fears, and a capacity to endure

/ Humanities

Deb Koo’s still life paintings pay homage to the fleeting moments that mold our lives

Saturated tones and pastel palettes intertwine in Deb Koo’s oil paintings portraying mundane moments, personal experiences and memories from her childhood

/ Humanities

A Storm in Grandma’s Tea Set: Amit Berman on roughness and nostalgia

«Roughness has been present in my work since the beginning; as a self-taught artist, I used to paint naively, working with what I had and expressing myself in raw ways» – Amit Berman

/ Humanities

Huasco Valley: Villages and Communities Abandoned at the Edge of Chile’s Desert

Photographer Cristian Ordóñez explores, through images, the last communities before the world’s largest desert capturing poverty, pollution, and lack of access to essential services in what is called the “Garden of Atacama”

/ Humanities

Jonathan Bazzi: «Non sono complice delle richieste dell’algoritmo»

Jonathan Bazzi: i temi sociali della periferia e della malattia, l’esperienza da sieropositivo e lo scarto di un attivismo politico: «So cosa dovrei fare per essere virale ma non mi interessa l’algoritmo»

/ Humanities

Ukraine, Georgia Slovakia and post-soviet heritage

Ukraine, Georgia Slovakia. Three different countries, at three different stages in the relationship with Russia. Ukraine, Georgia Slovakia: War, Protest, and Dissent

/ Humanities

Bre Andy: Documenting Black and Brown Women Through Figurative Oil Painting in Brooklyn

Inspired by the writings of Angela Davis, Bre Andy seeks to understand the struggles of black women who came before her, specifically in the context of black women in America

/ Humanities

Loving Raw, Playing Rough: No Romanticism on San Valentine’s Day

What does it mean Playing Rough? Intensity, power, and risk in sexual desire on San Valentine’s Day – from ancient Rome’s brothels to digital pornography and algorithm-driven hookups

/ Humanities

Amore ruvido: niente romanticismo a San Valentino

Il fascino del proibito, la seduzione del rischio, il potere – dai lupanari di Pompei ai bordelli del Diciottesimo secolo, fino alla digitalizzazione del sesso attraverso OnlyFans e il porno algoritmico

/ Humanities

My father went into the woods, with the intention of never coming back

Now is not the right time – a Photo Book Peter Pflügler: "The flying chair is the one my mother used to breastfeed me in, when all happened. It needed to be freed from the ground, it needed to fly, and still hang on a thread"

/ Humanities

Black History Month: Why It’s Celebrated in February and Its Lasting Impact

Today we mark February as a tribute to Black History: retracing ongoing community's struggles and recent triumphs

/ Humanities

Nature, Farming, and Food Production: What Countryside Means Today

Putting the countryside back on the agenda from a political standpoint: in conversation with Samir Bantal, AMO’s creative Director

/ Humanities

La Costa Smeralda prima di Karim Aga Khan non esisteva

Il destino di Karim Aga Kha fu deciso (anche) da Rita Hayworth – la storia dell’uomo che ha inventato la Costa Smeralda: un viaggio iniziato con un acquisto e trasformato in un progetto internazionale

/ Humanities

Can We Escape Consumerism? Black Friday Through the Cultural Humor of Marivan Martins

From Target shoppers fighting over a Stanley cup to an ambulance used for deliveries—I decided to make a book inspired by real news events.” Brazilian photographer Marivan Martins recounts the frenzy of Black Friday

/ Humanities

Chinese Espresso: how migration from China changed the face of Italian bars

Author and anthropologist Grazia Ting Deng recounts foaming milk, Occidentalist fantasies, and the socio-economic journey that has brought Chinese-run coffee bars to prominence in Italy

/ Humanities

L’eredità di Massimiliano d’Asburgo fucilato in Messico per colpa di Napoleone

Trieste omaggia Massimiliano d’Asburgo e la sua passione per la botanica – al Castello di Miramare rivivono i ricordi con Carlotta del Belgio e l’Imperatrice Sissi, accompagnati da una mostra che esplora il legame tra uomo e natura

/ Humanities

Michael Lockshin: Raw Reminders Between Two Worlds – USA and Russia

Interview with Michael Lockshin starting from his The Master and Margarita – Russians didn’t reconsider their symbols, they didn't take Lenin out of the mausoleum

/ Humanities

We Are Workers: Working-Class Heroes on Route 66

When the glitter of Tinsel Town fades, dreamers head west in search of opportunity—only to find themselves waiting tables in a diner. Through the raw lens of Rupert Tapper, explore a neighborhood that once marked the start of Route 66, capturing both the promise and disillusion of the American Dream

/ Humanities

Photography between lucky accidents and scientific experiments

«That feeling when you get sent the negatives and you look at them, that is what you are working for» - Brendan Freeman on film photography

/ Humanities

Growing Roots in an Alien Desert: Chloe Lea’s Journey

Embracing vulnerability and eschewing Hollywood perfection, Chloe Lea’s raw style offers a refreshingly grounded take on the high-stakes battles of Dune: Prophecy

/ Humanities

Chi è il Power Bottom? Fenomenologia di un ruolo sessuale

Quando si tratta di ruoli sessuali nella comunità LGBTQ+, la terminologia può diventare scivolosa. Esploriamo il significato di “power bottom” e la presunta minaccia alla mascolinità.

/ Humanities

Yayoi Kusama: Japanese Girl in America, American Girl in Japan

Robert Shore chronicles the art of Yayoi Kusama: «the discovery of her father’s affair left her with a lifelong aversion to male genitalia; the dropping of atomic bombs left a sense of reality as a hallucination»

/ Humanities

The Assassination of the Empress of Austria

Elisabeth of Austria was assassinated by an Italian anarchist: fragile and haunting, from Luchino Visconti's portrayed the Empress in the movie Ludwig, with Romy Schneider

/ Humanities

Rough Christmas: it’s not all snow and carols and carbs

As the global celebration takes many forms — cozy by the fire or sweltering on the beach — Christmas becomes a mirror reflecting society’s warmth, excess, and enduring hope

/ Humanities

Ella Wiznia: creating a thread to connect the upcycling

When eco-friendliness meets body-positivity: Ella Wiznia of The Series New York’s drive to upend traditional body conceptions and produce upcycled garments

/ Humanities

Photography Meets Cognitive Science at Rome’s One Room Bookstore

Stefano Ruffa leverages his background in media and cultural studies to curate a diverse collection of photobooks – transitioning from its original San Lorenzo location, OneRoom now thrives in Rome’s city center

/ Humanities

South Sudanese craftsmanship is rooted in women

South Sudanese women fled their country only taking out with them a few clothes. They’re now producing these to create their own business

/ Humanities

Wallis Simpson: the oldest fairy tale

The oldest fairy tale: a king who dreamed of becoming a servant and a servant who dreamed of becoming queen - a visual story by Charlotte Abramow

/ Humanities

Raw Land: Elsa Peretti in Sant Martí Vell

Confusion becomes an expression of human, cultural, and professional identity – Elsa Peretti transformed the world’s disorder into an organic form

/ Humanities

Obscene acts in a private space: gestures of a standard affair in a sunny afternoon

We want sex more than ever: an age of over exposure, the private versus the public - the obscene is the only fascination that still stands

/ Humanities

Humanitarian Design and the archetypes of clothes with REantwerp

Belgian designer Tim van Steenberg and journalist Ruth Goosens create REantwerp, a fashion brand that employs refugees and repurpose leftover fabrics

/ Humanities

Transcending the darkness: Desire Marea on spirituality, transparency and life as a performer

Johannesburg's queer community, the musical success and the recovery of the shaman tradition in the latest project Gwazamambuka. Desire Marea tells about the many identities that inhabit them

/ Exhibitions, Humanities

The legacy and heritage of Venice – an honest conversation with Toto Bergamo Rossi

The main purpose of Venetian Heritage is to promote one of the less known aspects of Venetian art: the sculptures. Nobody talks about that, always painters

/ Humanities

Faggot Pride and Prejudice: does the pope awaken gay activism?

‘There is too much faggotry’ – The Pope's words sparked controversy and reawakened gay pride that seemed dormant under the blanket of internal debates on human diversity and inclusive language

/ Humanities

Human fragility: Succubus Chic glamorizes illness

What is Succubus Chic ? It’s about the “heroin chic” aesthetic that can present confusing and problematic implications. Meaning, definition of Succubus Chic as a trend

/ Humanities

What does the RCTA term mean on TikTok?

RCTA (Race Change To Another) is both a popular term and a trend that has gone viral on social media platforms, like TikTok. What does RCTA mean?

/ Humanities

What is Niksen, the Dutch concept of doing nothing?

Cultural roots of Niksen: Dutch work-life balance and doing nothing. How Dutch culture values leisure time alongside productivity. Human respect, private life, personal growth

/ Humanities

David Sedaris on his life without his father: I hate married couples

«I wanted gay people to have the right to marry just so they could spit on it later» – David Sedaris: homosexuality, relationship with father, sister's suicide, partner Hugh, writing

/ Humanities

Two Spirit: who are they? understanding the fluid vocabulary

Uniting masculine and feminine energies, Two Spirit identities offer a holistic perspective on gender and spirituality. Challenging Western norms Lampoon explores the definition and the meaning of the term

/ Humanities

Queerbaiting and Rainbow washing: from Harry Style to Frozen

Picture something that seems to start out with the best of intentions but ends up doing worse. The issue of queerbaiting opens the debate to human respect and the need for a different LGBTQ+ representation

/ Humanities

The Role of Black – in fashion and human history

More than just a color – exploring the intersection of fashion, culture, and humanities by tracing attraction of black in the tapestry of western fashion history