Alfio Tommasini | Sacro Monte

ALFIO TOMMASINI
Sacro Monte

2021-2026

In “Sacro Monte”, the high Alpine valleys not merely as geographic terrain, but as a site of eternal transition. Here, the “Sacred Mountain” functions as a bridge between the regenerative depths of the earth and the infinite reach of the stars.

The animal presence serves as the primary witness to this alignment. These are not merely biological creatures; they are cosmological symbols—living echoes of the constellations that have guided nomadic and pastoral movements for millennia. In the gaze of a mountain goat or the weathered hide of a beast, we find a “sanctuary of ancient presences” that predates human language.

Through his lens, human gestures become rites and rituals. The merging of human hands with soil is a mimicry of the mountain’s own slow, tectonic metabolism. As glaciers retreat, the work invites us to consider the animal world as our oldest teacher in the dialogue between the visible and the invisible. We are reminded that in the silence of the peaks, the animal remains the keeper of the sacred.

This exhibition is financed by Pro Helvetia. 

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» GET TO KNOW THE ARTIST «

Alfio Tommasini is the curator and artistic director of the Verzasca Foto Festival, which he co-founded in 2013. As a curator, he has collaborated with several cultural organizations, especially in Latin America, and is currently a guest curator for the RAK Arts Festival (UAE).

He has exhibited his personal projects internationally and received various awards including first prize at the Encontros da Imagem International Festival, first prize at the Phodar Biennal, and the bronze medal at the Sony World Photography Awards.

His images have been published in magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian, British Journal of Photography, Le Temps Magazine, and Burn Mag.