28. March 2026
This year, the BID — Biennale Internazionale
Donna in Trieste is showcasing a contribution by Francesca Centonze, a student in the Department of Transmedia
Art. In her installation A Must Sea, the artist, who was born in Puglia but raised in Trieste, explores her hometown
– with the focus on the ever-changing Porto Vecchio harbour. It is home to several worlds. Today, it is both a cultural hub
and part of a development project shaped by cruise tourism, hotels and infrastructure. Parallel to this, another, less visible
world exists there: that of migrants from the Balkan route who have reached the port under precarious conditions and continue
to live there – two worlds, spatially close yet symbolically far apart, coexisting side by side.
Intrigued
by the traces of presence that are often only to be found on the fringes of the urban landscape, Centonze set out to search
for them. Through a practice of mindful exploration, Centonze discovered minute traces of migrants’ presence in the public
space around the station – remnants of packaging, such as ‘candy wrappers’, which accumulate and transform. These silent signs
point to continuous comings and goings, repetitions, and invisible lives, bearing witness to the harsh conditions – including
fatalities – in the port area. They are traces in the cityscape of those groups that are often given little visibility.
A
Must Sea is thus a project that questions the very act of seeing. It stems from the realisation and conviction that an attitude
of conscious detachment – along the lines of ‘that’s none of my business’ – is no longer tenable today. Closely linked to
this is the question of the individual’s social responsibility: What must be seen? What is seen? What social, ethical and
political contexts do seeing and being seen in public space entail?
The multimedia installation positions itself within
this field of tension without directly documenting or accusing. Instead, the installation works with shifts in meaning and
symbolic overlays. A sea printed on fabric becomes an ambivalent image, oscillating between nostalgia, leisure and loss, between
longing and trauma. Golden electric blankets appear as a flag and expand the symbolism of belonging and boundaries: they stand
simultaneously for protection and exclusion, and point to spaces where boundaries become visible as constructions of power
and capitalist logic.
Centonze’s work operates on a threshold – between the visible and the invisible, between cultural
production and survival, between aestheticisation and reality. It raises universally relevant questions about visibility in
public space and participation in social dynamics that extend beyond the example of Porto Vecchio. The project offers no solutions;
rather, it calls for a reorientation of the gaze: to linger, to observe, not to look away.
Centonze now lives in Vienna
and combines personal perspective with social reflection in her work. Her participation in the Biennale makes her multi-layered
exploration accessible to an international audience.
A Must Sea was supported by the Student Union of the
University of Applied Arts Vienna.
BID – Biennale Internazionale Donna
Exhibition dates: 28 March 2026 – 3
May 2026
bidartbiennale.com
