Zagara - Tiziana Amico

Zagara — Ciò che resta is the first institutional solo exhibition of Tiziana Amico, a photographer who draws on her legal background in her photographic practice. In Zagara, she combines a personal, family-based starting point with a broader investigation. Her great-grandmother was forced to flee an attempted femicide in Sicily in 1939. From this point, the work explores how gender-based violence leaves traces: not only in the body, but especially in silence, in gestures, and in inherited emotional landscapes. The title Zagara refers to the blossom of the orange tree. What is culturally staged as a celebration of love, marriage and purity turns out to be an ambivalent presence: a beauty that not only seduces, but also controls and suffocates. The fragrance symbolises a socially imposed femininity that both idealises and imprisons women. The work is shaped by three key influences: the family archive as an active, contested site where silences can be broken and erased voices made audible again; the legal system as a structural framework for violence and protection; and the role of the media in portraying and obscuring gender-based violence. Landscapes of Sicily, family portraits and archival images are complemented by scents, audio, video and research materials. The exhibition is part of the annual programme handle with care and is presented alongside the work of Virginie Rebetez.