Geography and Mystery”: Italian Photographers Bring Tale of Two Cities to Alexandria’s Graeco-Roman Museum

 

 

 

Art D’Égypte by CulturVator inaugurated the exhibition Tale of Two Cities under the title “Geography and Mystery”, hosted by the Graeco-Roman Museum.

 

 

 

The exhibition is curated by Alessandro Castiglioni, promoted by The Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo, is made possible through the support of the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture, as part of the public initiative for the Promotion of Italian Contemporary Photography Abroad and it is organized with the collaboration of the Honorary Consulate of Italy in Alexandria, Egypt.

 

 

It features photographic works by two leading Italian contemporary artists, Marina Ballo Charmet and Stefano Cagol. The exhibition also extends the cultural dialogue initiative of Tale of Two Cities, which was previously showcased at the MA*GA Museum in Gallarate, Italy, in July 2025.

 

Following an extensive research phase conducted in Italy and at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the exhibition places the two artists in an open dialogue with natural geography, ancient heritage, and archaeological discoveries that link the history of the Mediterranean to its future. The event is hosted in a major museum institution founded by Italian Egyptologist Giuseppe Botti in 1891, which has long been dedicated to Mediterranean dialogue and to Alexandria’s role as a crossroads of civilizations between the Greek and Roman worlds, reaching its peak with the rise of Coptic Christianity.

 

 

Building on this unique historical context, thep exhibition transforms photography into a bridge across time, connecting historical issues with environmental and climatic dynamics, and affirming the role of art as a tool of communication between the past, present, and future.

This exhibition is part of the cultural collaboration between Egypt and Italy, reflecting a shared vision to promote Mediterranean artistic dialogue and highlighting Alexandria’s role as a pivotal city in global history and culture.

 

Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, Founder of Art D’Égypte,pp stated: “We are delighted top continue the Tale of Two Cities initiative through the exhibition Geography and Mystery in Alexandria. Hosting this exhibition at the Graeco-Roman Museum marks a pivotal moment, where contemporary art enters into a living dialogue with thousands of years of history. Alexandria has always been, and remainsppl a crossroads ofl civilizations, and today, through art, we reaffirm this0 role while building new bridges between past,p present, and future. We are proud of this cultural collaboration with our partners in Italy, and we believe such initiatives reinforce Egypt’s position as a leading platform for artistic and cultural dialogue in the region and across the world.”

 

Alessandro Castiglioni added: "A distinctive feature of the work of Ballo and Cagol is their ability to investigate places—their history, identity, and nature. This project stems from that consideration, expanding into a broaderp geographic analysis. In our present time, geographic sciences and practices take on an entirely new significance. It’s not merely a matter of representation and documentation: geographic practice becomes an act of awareness, of knowledge—it is a gesture of discovery and of love. We are not speaking of a positivistic, assertive geography, but rather of a project that explores the boundaries of knowing and unknowing. A sense of wonder before history, nature, the visible and the invisible. Hence the title Geography and Mystery.”