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Construction sites have always been places of transformation, where raw materials take shape and buildings change their appearance. Yet they are often seen as little more than a temporary disruption to city life.
Cultura in Cantiere (Culture Under Construction), a project created by Exhibit Around APS in collaboration with Edilimpianti Trieste S.r.l. Benefit Corporation offers a different way of looking at these spaces. Active in the area since 2014, the company has built a reputation for an approach to construction that combines environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, and building regeneration, operating according to the principles of corporate responsibility, good governance, and construction innovation. Through the use of cutting-edge materials and techniques, it actively contributes to the transformation of the local area, promoting sustainable development and community wellbeing.
Cultura in Cantiere aims to transform urban regeneration sites into opportunities for cultural production, bringing contemporary photography into the heart of working processes.
At the centre of the project is the creative residency of Nicolas Brunetti, a young photographer and winner of the Patricia D. Richards Legacy Award, selected by curator Denis Curti as part of the Trieste Photo Days 2025 festival. Working alongside mentor and professional photographer Stefano Mirabella, Brunetti will undergo an immersive experience in which artistic research grafts itself directly onto the company’s working rhythms. The goal is to integrate aesthetic practice into industrial processes: the artist will work in close contact with the company, taking part in day-to-day activities and observing dynamics, materials, and human relationships on site.
The construction site is thus reimagined as a living workshop, where creativity emerges from the observation of technical gestures and everyday interactions. Through shared shooting sessions, Edilimpianti’s workers and technicians will guide the photographer’s lens, helping to tell the story of their own work from the inside, and turning construction activity into a contemporary visual narrative.
The project will be presented to the public during the Trieste Photo Days 2026 festival through an opening event, an exhibition at L’Angolo di Rocco, and an open-air installation in which the scaffolding itself will become a temporary exhibition structure, giving rise to a diffuse, accessible show woven into the daily life of the city. Rounding out the project, a publication conceived to capture and celebrate the synergy between business and culture, alongside a series of events developed in collaboration with Associazione Stazione Rogers.
Nicolas Brunetti (Photographer in Residence) is an Italian documentary photographer based in Cesena (FC). Through long-term projects he explores the relationship between people, place, and social and environmental change. With an intimate and empathetic eye, he creates narratives that interweave individual experiences and collective concerns.
His work has been published by The Guardian, National Geographic Italia, Vogue, and other international outlets. In 2026 he was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. In 2025 he was selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop XXXVIII in New York, for Photograph-ER — the training programme developed as part of Fotografia Europea in Reggio Emilia — and for the Angkor Photo Festival in Cambodia. In 2025 he also received the Patricia D. Richards Legacy Award – URBAN Photo Awards 2025. He was a finalist for the Prix Révélation 2025 at Les Rencontres d’Arles, winner of the open call “Present is the New Future” promoted by Fondazione Imago Mundi (2024), and winner of the Life Framer “Youth” Award 2024.
nicolasbrunetti.com
@nicolasbrunetti
Stefano Mirabella (Mentor) is an Italian photographer working in the fields of documentary and street photography. Based in Rome, he developed his practice through social reportage, with extended work across Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, India) and the Middle East (Syria and the occupied Palestinian territories). Since 2012 he has been consistently dedicated to street photography. He was a member of the collective Spontanea; in 2014 he was among the winners of the Leica Talent award; and in 2021 he curated an exhibition on Caio Mario Garrubba for the Istituto Luce. He teaches at Officine Fotografiche and is a member of the faculty of the Leica Akademie.
Cultura in Cantiere is made possible with the support of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region – Io Sono Friuli Venezia Giulia, and in partnership with Edilimpianti Trieste S.r.l. Benefit Corporation, Associazione Stazione Rogers, and the cultural association dotART.
