Malpensa, contemporary photography arrives at Terminal 1 with HABITAT
This is the first stage of the sixth edition of INSIGHT, which from 16 to 25 October will bring 42 exhibitions and 40 events dedicated to contemporary photography to Varese. For the first time, the festival goes beyond the city limits and reaches the airport, directly intercepting an international audience arriving and leaving.
The theme of the exhibition stems from ABITO - What world do we choose to inhabit?, the leitmotif of the 2026 edition of the festival, and focuses on the relationship between people, landscape and the environment. The works address the transformation of territories, the way in which nature is observed and reproduced, and the responsibilities related to the ways in which we inhabit the planet.
Four projects between nature, photography and experimentation
At PhotoSquare, the works of Collective22, Niccolò Lucchi, Niccolò Rinaldi and YirongWu are presented, through very different languages and techniques. Collective22 offers Archive22, an archive dedicated to little-known endangered species that combines analogue photography and admittedly artificially generated images. Niccolò Lucchi, on the other hand, entrusts the visual result to a physical process in which sheets composed of stone dust are immersed in water and pigment, leaving evaporation to determine the image.
With W.E.I.R.D, Niccolò Rinaldi photographs places where nature is artificially recreated and separated from its context, highlighting the tension between real environment and simulation. YirongWu, on the other hand, with Three Trees, observes the tree through moving photography and macro photography, interpreting it as a living architecture inhabited by numerous small species.
A free exhibition during the trip
The peculiarity of HABITAT is also in its location. PhotoSquare was created to take contemporary photography out of traditional museum spaces and insert it directly into the airport experience, meeting Travellers, workers and visitors during the time spent in the terminal.
The exhibition HABITAT - What nature do we inhabit? can be visited at PhotoSquare, Terminal 1 of Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP), until 15 January 2027, with free admission.
