From April 2 to April 13, 2025, the exhibition Labirinto Macuti: Photographs and Soundscapes from Beira will be held in Trento at Sala Thun in Torre Mirana, located at Via Belenzani 3.
The inauguration is scheduled for April 1 at 5:00 PM.
Photographs by Paolo Ghisu. Soundscapes by Emanuele Lapiana. Guidance for blind and visually impaired visitors by Fiorenzo Pojer.
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Africa is often portrayed through loud narratives that grab attention by amplifying dramas, contradictions, stereotypes, and folklore. But amidst this clamor, authentic stories, the real experiences of those who inhabit the continent, and the traces that shape its historical and social memory are lost.
This project, carried out between 2022 and 2025, takes us into the heart of Macuti, a coastal neighborhood in Beira, one of Mozambique’s major cities, facing the Indian Ocean. Here, the population is growing at an astonishing rate, in a country experiencing one of the fastest demographic expansions in the world. In just a few years, it has nearly doubled, and today Macuti is home to about 30,000 people. Urbanization is advancing rapidly, but in a disorderly manner, lacking proper planning.
Through the images and sounds of Macuti Labyrinth, we immerse ourselves in a maze of streets, alleys, canals, and houses built closely together. The visual journey guides us from a broad view of the neighborhood to the most intimate details of daily life: moments of community, fragments of domestic life, scenes of work, and human relationships. A narrative that captures the beating heart of Macuti, far from the stereotypes that often distort the perception of these places.
These photographs do not aim to astonish or sensationalize, but to sincerely convey the beauty and fragility of everyday life, captured in its subtle gestures and extraordinary care. At the same time, they highlight social and environmental challenges that are not unique to Beira but affect many cities worldwide: the precariousness of housing, degraded infrastructure, uncontrolled urban expansion, and the lack of essential services such as access to clean water, sewage systems, and waste management.
Adding to these issues is an increasingly urgent threat: recurring floods during the rainy season, which in recent years have hit the neighborhood with growing intensity, exacerbated by the tangible effects of climate change.
Some images bear the indelible marks of recent cyclones, such as Idai in 2019—one of the most violent ever recorded in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. These are visible scars on houses, streets, and people’s lives. Scars that speak of Beira, in Mozambique, but also of us and the global challenges our time compels us to face.
With Macuti Labyrinth, the invitation is not only to observe and listen but to lose yourself in this reality, to navigate its contradictions, to recognize ourselves in its challenges, and to be enveloped by its vital energy.