Welcome to the 12th Edition of the Verzasca Foto Festival

Like a whisper rising from the valley, the Verzasca Foto Festival comes to life in the quiet that marks the first days of autumn in the mountains. The trails winding among ancient stones, along the emerald-green river, welcome deep silences… and then the voices of those arriving from near and far. People do not come to the Festival just to look at photographs — they come to live an experience that weaves together landscapes and people, unexpected encounters, and reflections suspended between light and stone.

Visitors to the Festival tune into a different rhythm. The works of international artists breathe among villages, forests, and waterways, in dialogue with the mountains and with those who inhabit them. The exhibition paths become opportunities to walk through a collective gaze; one made of questions, stories, and mutual sharing. Here, every step and every image invites you to slow down, to observe, to be moved by both the visible and the invisible.

This year’s edition draws inspiration from one of the valley’s most vital and profound elements: water, both as a form and a metaphor. The exhibited projects explore its role in shaping the landscape, as well as its power as a mirror for nomadic and fluid identities: untamed, elusive, slipping through rigid definitions and imposed borders. The Festival welcomes images that flow and cannot be contained: stories of threatened territories, bodies that move upstream, visions where water becomes a voice for those who are marginalized.

In this twelfth edition, the Festival remains a visual laboratory deeply invested in humanity: a place where art becomes community, where past and present are seen through new eyes, and no one is ever just a spectator.

Program

3.9
WEDNESDAY

16:00–19:00 Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
Festival welcome with bar and publishing houses stands

19:00 Colonia, Sonogno
Dinner

20:30–23:30 Grotto Efra, Sonogno
Meetings at the Grotto, projections Friends of the Festival
PHMuseum – Photography Grant + Fotofestiwal Lodz

4.9
THURSDAY

10:00 Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
Visit to the waterfall, meditation in Bodies of Water

12:00 Colonia, Sonogno
Lunch

13:30–16:00 Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
Presentations from exhibiting artists

16:30 Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
Departure for a walk in the woods from Sonogno to Frasco

17:00 Officina Adriano, Frasco
Opening exhibition Artists in Residence in the Verzasca Valley
Mayssa Khoury, Sumi Anjuman

19:30–23:30Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
Dinner in the village, followed by LP’s DJ set by leMox

5.9
FRIDAY

09:00 – 12:30 Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
Photo Match - Presentations of Artists Portfolios and Photography Experts
in collaboration with Fotofestiwal Lodz

12:30 Colonia, Sonogno
Lunch

13:30–16:00 Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
Presentations from exhibiting artists

17:30 Casa Comunale, Brione
Opening exhibition Verzasca Foto Awards
Rhiannon Adam, Camilla Marrese & Gabriele Chiapparini, Aline Bovard Rudaz

19:00–22:30 Castello Marcacci, Brione
Dinner followed by folk sounds from the Mediterranean and South America with “MAMARUA” Lavinia Mancusi & Denise Di Maria in collaboration with Osa!

6.9
Saturday

11:30–13:00 Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
“How do we make Photo Books?”
Panel in collaboration with near
Brian Paul Lamotte, Nicolas Polli, Giulia Brivio, Nathalie Bissig, Benoit Chattaway
Moderated by Ann Griffin

13:00 Colonia, Sonogno
Lunch

14.:30 Tecc der Nicoletta, Sonogno
Coffee and meeting point for guided tour

15:00 Val Vogorness, Sonogno
Opening exhibition “Bodies of Water”
Guided Tour with exhibiting artists

19:00–23:00 Piazza, Sonogno
Night of Photography, folk dinner and concert
“A Cruda Voz” Lavinia Mancusi & Mauro Menegazzi in collaboration with Osa!
Projections

23:00 Grotto Efra, Sonogno
After Party Selvadig
Temporary exhibition of Javier Cerrada and DJ Sets till late with LP’s DJ set by leMox and Bon Voyage

7.9
SUNDAY

12:00 Casa Azul, Gordola
Garden brunch
Festival Info point for visits in the Valley

13:30 Casa Azul, Gordola
Opening annual exhibition programme “Moving structures”
with an exhibition curated by Associazione +41
Flavio Araujo, Aniket Godbole, Francesco Tadini

14:00–16:30 Casa Azul, Gordola
Cyanotypes Laboratory for Children
By Francesca Marra
Free registration at event

17:00 Casa Azul, Gordola
End of Festival Main Days

Exhibitions

Open until 5 October 2025

BODIES OF WATER

Thematic exhibition
•Nucleo e Valle Vogorness, Sonogno

Yann Gross

SWITZERLAND

Lavina
Yann Gross captures the force and beauty of avalanches, blending awe and fear. The images in “Lavina” reveal the mountain’s spectacular and contemplative power in motion.

David Ụzochukwu

NIGERIA/AUSTRIA

Drown in my Magic / Mare Monstrum
The series shows Black merpeople thriving in bodies of water, referencing historic and present passages such as the Transatlantic Slave Trade and migration across the Mediterranean Sea.

Cansu Yıldıran

TURKEY

Fathom
“Fathom” explores queer resilience and myth-making in Turkey through intimate, collaborative night-time portraits that unveil hidden identities, joy, and defiance in the face of invisibility.

Claudia Amatruda

ITALY

Hypersea
“Hypersea” is a speculative investigation into the fluid boundaries between human, animal and environment, where the disabled body becomes a site of transformation, interdependence and posthuman imagination. Commissioned by the Italian Cultural Institute, in Stockholm.

Luis Cobelo

VENEZUELA/USA

Zurumbático
“Zurumbático” is a journey inspired by “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, exploring the Colombian Caribbean, where poetic images reflect emotions, magical essence, symbols, and the complexity of Latin America.

Emilio Nasser

ARGENTINA/SWITZERLAND

Shipwreck of Dreams
“Shipwreck of Dreams” reimagines a wish-granting boat legend from a Swiss lake, intertwining stories of migration, belonging, and solidarity through the journey of a self-organised school across Europe’s borders.

Laurence Kubski

SWITZERLAND

Big Fish
“Big Fish” swims upstream in the supply chain of the ornamental fish trade—the third most popular pet among the Swiss—from European aquariums to Indonesian fishermen.

Miguel Hahn and Jan Christoph Hartung

GERMANY

Mother of Water
The Mekong River is under threat: dams, climate change, and illegal sand mining are endangering Southeast Asia’s vital waterway, its ecosystems, and millions of livelihoods. “Mother of Water” situates itself on the Mekong banks and its waterways.

Sara Munari

ITALY

Lapilli (Curated by Simone Azzoni and the students of Accademia di Belle Arti Santa Giulia)
“Lapilli” is a polymaterial and multilingual investigation into the elements: water, earth, fire. Religion and myth, legend and narrative build the relationship that humans have with the dynamic sublime: fear and wonder.

Jana Hartmann

GERMANY

MASTERING the ELEMENTS (Curated by Antoine Martin)
In “MASTERING the ELEMENTS,” the artist Jana Hartmann focusses on the exploration of nature from ancient Greece to the present day and addresses our ever-evolving understanding and mastery of coexisting life forms.

Alice Pallot

FRANCE/BELGIUM

Algues maudites
Through a speculative documentary, Alice Pallot’s work draws on scientific research to explore the human impact on the environment. “Algues maudites” focuses on toxic algae proliferating along the Breton coastline.

Matthieu Gafsou

SWITZERLAND

Élégies
In “Élégies,” Matthieu Gafsou documents vanishing glaciers through altered photographic processes, merging artistic approach with ecological reflection on human-environment relations.

Cristobal Ascencio

Mexico/Spain

Las flores mueren dos veces
“Las flores mueren dos veces” explores grief and memory through the digital intervention of family photographs and a recreation of a garden, the author’s response to his father’s final words after learning of his suicide.

Marta Panzeri

SWITZERLAND

After the Tide
Tribute to an ancient sea that once was, “After the Tide” addresses themes such as belonging, memory, and the resilience of nature, where the river landscape becomes the guardian of a personal and collective identity.

Katja Loher

SWITZERLAND

Crystalline Currents
“Crystalline Currents” maps video onto a salt mountain where light refracts in sea-born crystals, as if the Earth were answering the ocean—merging nature, movement, and digital vision.

Javier Cerrada

VENEZUELA/GERMANY

RESOLANA (with the consultation of eden levi am)
A poetic and ironic exploration of queer identity through light and portraiture, “RESOLANA” reflects how marginalized bodies carry, share, and amplify each other’s radiance in the face of adversity.

VERZASCA FOTO AWARDS

RHIANNON ADAM

FIRST PRICE

UK

Rhi-Entry
“Rhi-Entry” charts artist Rhiannon Adam’s psychological recalibration to “normal life” after the cancellation of the dearMoon mission, the world’s first civilian lunar circumnavigation, on which she was to be a crewmember.

CAMILLA MARRESE AND GABRIELE CHIAPPARINI

SECOND PLACE

ITALY

Thinking Like an Island
“Thinking Like an Island” provides a reflection on the geographical, social and temporal space of a remote island, looking at its continuous process of identity construction, and at its contemporary political value.

ALINE BOVARD RUDAZ

THIRD PLACE

SWITZERLAND

Cherche RADIUMINEUSE
“Cherche RADIUMINEUSE” is a photographic investigation and tribute to Swiss women who painted radium on watch dials from the 1920s–60s, risking their health. It explores memory, silence, and industrial injustice.

VERZASCA FOTO AWARDS
•Casa Comunale, Brione
Exhibitions open until October 5
Open like the municipal office or by appointment.

Parallel Exhibitions

RESIDENZE ARTISTICHE IN VALLE VERZASCA

Mayssa Khoury

Lebanon

Sumi Anjuman

Bangladesh

•Exhibition at Officina Adriano, Frasco
/Open until October 5 on weekends from 14.00 to 18.00 or by appointment.
info@verzascafoto.ch

MOVING STRUCTURES

Flavio Araujo

Brazil/Switzerland

Aniket Godbole

Nigeria/India/Switzerland

Francesco Tadini

Switzerland

•Exhibition at Casa Azul, Gordola

Casa Azul is open on weekends from 14.00 to 18.00 or by appointment: casaazul@verzascafoto.ch

How to reach us

More information on how to reach us and accommodation offers on our visit page.