A1, a solo exhibition by Attilio Melfi, opens at Studio Iusgate, Via Castiglione 81, Bologna, on Friday 24 October 2025 at 6 pm.

Dedicated to Bologna, Naples and Rome, the exhibition brings together 14 works, 13 of them shown for the first time. It is accompanied by a critical essay by Carmen Nolasco.

Nolasco writes:

“Human figures are almost entirely absent, appearing at most as indistinct shadows. The focus is not on people, but on place. Far from making these scenes darker, their absence allows light to take centre stage. At times, all that remains of it is the faint glimmer of railway tracks cutting through the darkness. Light does not always illuminate; sometimes, as in the golden glow of a sunset, it reveals.

Without their inhabitants, these cities become landscapes of the mind. This is ‘still cinema’ in its purest form: images that capture the rawness of contemporary life without the need for crowds. The lights are still on, but the actors have left the stage.

Attilio’s gift lies not in painting solitude, but in showing us an empty street that makes us feel alone. He does not depict time suspended. Instead, he captures a precise instant in which time seems to stop of its own accord. His technical realism becomes a means of revealing truth. Every detail is rendered with photographic precision, without filtering or omission, opening the way to more intimate and personal ways of seeing.

His cities exist only at the precise moment we look at them. Blink, and the world is noisy again.”