Prendersi cura

At a time in history when words such as safety and protection are increasingly associated with control, surveillance and separation, Prendersi Cura stems from a desire to create a different kind of space: a visual, collective and political space in which care can once again be understood as a relational practice, a gesture of attention and a form of resistance.

Following last year’s event Essere-con, which explored the theme of living together, the Sambre collective returns to examine the nature of relationships through a new open call focusing on ‘caring’, understood in its broadest sense. Not a form of care reduced to therapy, healing or a response to a state of vulnerability, but a daily practice rooted in attentiveness, presence and responsibility. A way of being in the world that stems from observation and which, like photography, involves shifting one’s gaze towards our surroundings.


The call for entries attracted a wide and significant response, from which five finalist projects were selected: works that differ in terms of language, subject matter and approach, but that are united by their ability to explore the concept of care through personal and multifaceted perspectives. The exhibition thus features works by Francesca Gelli, Gaia Maggio, Lorenzo Saterini, Matilde Gucciardi and Susanna Guidi. Their images do not seek a single definition of care, but rather convey its complexity: care for bodies and minds, for places and relationships; care as listening and presence, but also as responsibility, conflict, effort and possibility. These are practices which, in different ways, challenge the logic of isolation and individualism and bring back into focus what often remains unseen: mutual dependence, vulnerability, and the day-to-day work required to keep bonds alive.


Alongside the five selected projects, the exhibition also features a number of photographs by Giulia Bersani, an artist particularly dear to us, with a selection of images in which care is portrayed in an intimate, everyday and affectionate way. Her work offers a perspective that focuses on closeness, bodies, bonds and those small gestures through which we look after ourselves and others. Her presence thus broadens the scope of the exhibition, demonstrating how care can also manifest itself in the most personal and private aspects of experience.


Rounding off the exhibition is a selection of photozines, which engage with the exhibition’s theme, curated by Tramezine, a festival dedicated to independent photographic publishing. The decision to include independent publishing stems from a desire to extend the discussion on curation to the ways in which images are shared, preserved and circulated. Zines are, in fact, small and precious objects, capable of collecting and preserving images, but also – thanks to their accessibility – of promoting their dissemination and enabling photography to reach different audiences and contexts.


Through the works featured in the exhibition, Sambre invites us to recognise that no life is entirely autonomous, that once again vulnerability is not an exception but a common condition, and that every form of coexistence requires care and responsibility. It also means asking ourselves what we choose to see, what we decide to value, and what relationships we wish to build. In this sense, photography can become a tool for healing: not merely because it documents or preserves, but because it requires time, attention and closeness. To take a photograph is to choose to look, to pause before something, to acknowledge its existence and to give it a place. The images in this exhibition stem from different urges and contexts, nevertheless they share precisely this: looking in order to draw closer, observing in order to understand, and telling a story in order to restore visibility. Caring can be fragile and exhausting; it can give rise to conflict; it can fail. But it can also become a practice capable of shaping the future: a political act that combats inequality, rebuilds bonds and envisions different forms of community. It is this which, even in the most difficult circumstances, continues to make life possible.


Prendersi cura saw the collaboration with  Camera38 APS, Concretipo and Tramezine.