Luca Piffaretti, Controcorrente

The images on display tell the complex story of a river whose ecosystem has been profoundly transformed over the last two centuries: first through canalization and the exploitation of its waters for agricultural purposes, then through industrial expansion which, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, put its very existence at risk. Today, alongside redevelopment projects and the desire to preserve the river's ecosystem, industrial presence remains an integral part of the area's identity.

In the main room of Casa Pessina, medium- to large-format photographs and monumental prints applied directly to the walls are presented in an irregular arrangement that evokes the ebb and flow of the river. In the side rooms, which house Apollonio Pessina's permanent collection of sculptures, Piffaretti has chosen to present a dialogue between his works and black-and-white photographs by Giovanni Luisoni (1944), a photographer from Stabio who has been documenting the same places explored by Controcorrente for years. Two perspectives and two sensibilities thus meet along the banks of the same river, conveying to the public the complexity and unexpected charm of a constantly changing territory.