The Ferrero Foundation of Alba presents, from Friday 13 March to Thursday 30 April 2026, a new exhibition project curated by Denis Curti: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY by Olivia Arthur, documentary photographer and London-based visual artist.
“Olivia Arthur’s ‘human geography’,” writes curator Denis Curti, “resembles an emotional bridge capable of erasing geographical boundaries. Hers is a chronicle of love and resistance, as heartbreaking as it is sincere, skillfully distilling the shared desire to exist free from social constraints. Through her photographs, Arthur succeeds in creating a welcoming space in which a transversal representation of humankind can flourish. Every image is an expressive choice that highlights the individuality of its subjects. Those who stand before her lens accept the challenge of baring their dreams and desires, anxieties and fears: Arthur constructs a true sublimation of otherness, attempting to annul every moral stratification while simultaneously highlighting the divine within the human. She frames gestures, gazes, actions, and interactions able to transcend the concept of confession: for her, photographing means delving deep into intimacy so that people may reveal themselves without fear of judgment. And it is from the sum of these testimonies that a vision arises—one aimed at solemnizing the uniqueness of existence, presenting an art so alive that it overlaps with reality. Art—and in this case photography—must continue to perform a restless function. The viewer is not merely a witness but assumes the responsibility of telling the world and thus takes a position. With Olivia Arthur, photography becomes a conscious and universal language. Once the typical ambiguities of visual language are smoothed out, Human Geography becomes an opportunity for dialogue and exchange, with the aim of creating relationships of proximity.”
The Human Geography exhibition presents a selection of images: portraits, settings, black-and-white landscapes created in diverse geographical and cultural contexts, often marked by social fragility or conditions of marginality.
Olivia Arthur has worked in Saudi Arabia—particularly in Jeddah—, in the Palestinian territories, in Jordan, Egypt, Ukraine, Georgia, Kosovo, the Caucasus, as well as in the United Kingdom and other European regions. In several cases she focused on minority communities, women’s groups, and peripheral or underrepresented realities.
The photographs selected by the artist and curator for Human Geography come from projects conceived as coherent bodies of work, such as Thirty Years of the Ferrero Foundation or the series created between Milan, Rome, Barcelona, and Osaka during the 2020 lockdown. They mainly cover the decade from 2013 to 2023 and include points around the globe from India to Japan, from the United States to South America, with a focus on the United Kingdom, between London and Glasgow.
Working in these contexts requires long periods of residence and the gradual construction of a relationship of trust when coming from a different cultural background. The final image is therefore the visible outcome of an invisible process made of encounters, conversations, and waiting.
The concept of human geography can thus be interpreted from this perspective: every portrait defines a relational distance before a geographical one; every face represents a point on a map that is not only territorial but deeply human.
The bodies photographed are not abstract symbols but situated presences, shaped by time, personal history, and the context in which they live. Photography becomes a tool to make this rootedness tangible, without reducing it to a stereotype or transforming it into a mere “aesthetic construction.”
“The images featured in the Ferrero Foundation’s exhibition,” Curti continues, “should be perceived as an aesthetic archetype of freedom. From the most eccentric compositions to the most introspective ones, Olivia Arthur ultimately invites viewers to challenge their own certainties, enabling them to reach a dialogic maturity made possible by looking through another’s eyes. In doing so, the artist outlines the murmurs of a renewed collective identity, built upon a conscious analysis of the infinite facets of the contemporary landscape.”
In 2013 Olivia Arthur was the protagonist, through her photographs, of a publishing project released by Skira and curated by Caterina Ginzburg to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the social initiative established in 1983 by Michele Ferrero, later transformed into a Foundation under the presidency of Mrs. Maria Franca Ferrero. On that occasion, Arthur created an intense narrative through her images, exploring all the activities offered by the Foundation to “Ferrero Seniors,” employees and retirees who spent at least 25 years within the Group. People are portrayed in powerful close-ups, in moments of everyday life, in various groups, during physical activities indoors and outdoors, in convivial spaces, while setting up exhibition areas, on stage, in vegetable gardens, in the kitchen, during assistance and volunteer programs—from medical and social care to interactions with the company nursery—conveying a faithful and vivid portrait of the philosophy and practices the Foundation promotes to approach aging positively, seeking resources, potential, and relationships.
Within Human Geography, a dedicated video room will allow visitors to revisit a selection of the 2013 portraits, appreciating their intensity and contemporary relevance.
“Thirteen years later,” Curti adds, “the portraits take on a value that surpasses aesthetics and documentation: they become engines of memory. The photographs reveal a deep reading of individuals and the collective dimension, of personal values and shared principles. Seeing oneself again through the photographer’s gaze—recognizing oneself in that moment of shared presence that constitutes a portrait—generates a rare and precious interaction capable of evoking nostalgia, tenderness, and a profound sense of belonging in the viewer.”
The exhibition will open on Thursday 12 March at 6:00 pm. Alongside Olivia Arthur and the curator, Franco Achilli will also be present. Achilli is Professor of Visual Identity at IULM University in Milan and coordinator of the Master’s program in Visual Communication at IED Milan. He holds degrees in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano and Anthropology and Ethnology from the University of Milano-Bicocca, and has spent more than forty years designing photography exhibitions and working in visual design. He is the author of essays and contributions on material culture and design.
Olivia Arthur is a documentary photographer and visual artist based in London. Her work explores gender themes, intimacy, the human body and physicality, as well as the cultural influences of East and West. She studied mathematics at the University of Oxford and photojournalism at the London College of Printing before moving to Delhi in 2003 to become a photographer. Her first books, Jeddah Diary (2012) and Stranger (2015), document daily life among young women in Saudi Arabia and the story of a shipwreck in Dubai. Transitioning to large-format portraiture, Arthur began examining humans’ relationship with their bodies, touch, physicality, and the intersection between body and technology. This work became her third book, Murmurings of the Skin, published in 2024. She is co-founder of Fishbar, a publishing house and photography space in London. Her more recent books, A Pocket of Their Own Shape and Lee and the Sea Things (both 2025), experiment with layered images through double exposures and collage. A member of Magnum Photos, she served as its president from 2020 to 2022.
Denis Curti is a photography critic and curator. He currently sits on the board of Le Stanze della Fotografia in Venice. He is artistic director of the Deloitte Photogrant and curator of photography exhibitions in the Santa Giulia museum complex in Brescia. He is the author of numerous essays on visual culture and has curated many major solo exhibitions, including those of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Sebastião Salgado, Elliott Erwitt, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Ferdinando Scianna, and Nino Migliori. He previously served as director of IL FOTOGRAFO magazine and of the Contrasto agency.
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