MILAN.- The exhibition Paolo Rosselli. Worlds in Pose has officially opened at Triennale Milano, inviting visitors to step into a visually rich and quietly ironic portrait of contemporary cities as seen through the lens of Paolo Rosselli. On view through January 6, 2026, the show brings together large-format photographs spanning the past 25 years of Rosselli’s work, offering a layered reflection on architecture, urban life, and the way cities continuously reinvent themselves.
Rather than presenting cities as fixed or monumental, Rosselli approaches them as living organisms—full of contradictions, humor, and unexpected poetry. His photographs move effortlessly between past and present, placing iconic modernist architecture alongside everyday moments: a passerby caught mid-step, a reflection in glass, a sign slipping into the frame. These small, seemingly marginal details become crucial clues, revealing how architecture is inseparable from the rhythms of daily life.
The exhibition unfolds across eleven thematic sections, each highlighting a different way of seeing the urban environment. In Architecture Revisited, Rosselli reinterprets works by renowned modern and contemporary architects, including figures such as Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, and Giuseppe Terragni, filtering their legacy through the lens of the present. Elsewhere, in sections like Cities and Mobile Scene, metropolises appear chaotic, surreal, and deeply human—sometimes photographed from inside a moving car, sometimes constructed through visual montages that blur reality and perception.
Rosselli’s images are dense and inviting, encouraging viewers to slow down and look closely. Reality often seems to soften at the edges, giving way to subjective experience. A reflection can distort space, a shadow can suggest movement, and a fragment of human presence can quietly anchor an entire composition. In this way, the photographs resist a single reading, instead opening up multiple layers of interpretation.
The exhibition also resonates strongly with Inequalities, the 24th International Exhibition of Triennale Milano, and connects conceptually with several other extended exhibitions currently on view. Together, these shows reflect on cities as sites of transformation—places where social, cultural, and architectural tensions coexist.
Curated by Studio Paolo Rosselli in collaboration with Francesco Paleari, Cecilia Da Pozzo, and Giacomo Quinland, and featuring exhibition design by Studio GISTO, Worlds in Pose is less a documentary of cities than a meditation on how we inhabit them. Rosselli’s work reminds us that urban spaces are not only built environments, but also emotional and cultural landscapes—shaped as much by memory and perception as by concrete and steel.
