Annabella Rossi. The Poetics of Reality — exhibition at Museo di Roma

Annabella Rossi. The Poetics of Reality — Museo di Roma in Trastevere

From 2 April to 31 May 2026 the Museo di Roma in Trastevere presents Annabella Rossi. The Poetics of Reality, an exhibition devoted to a leading figure of Italian visual anthropology. The project is promoted by Roma Capitale - Department of Culture and the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, curated by Stefania Baldinotti, Massimo Cutrupi and Francesco Quaranta, in collaboration with the Museo delle Civiltà (MuCIV) and the Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio Immateriale (ICPI).

Exhibition route

The show presents a selection of photographs, videos and archival materials—many previously unpublished—drawn from the Annabella Rossi Collection held at ICPI-MuCIV. The layout builds a narrative that begins with the 1959 Salento expedition with Ernesto de Martino and continues through Rossi’s extensive fieldwork in Southern Italy on popular religiosity, traditional festivals and performative practices.

• Salento expedition (1959): documents and images related to the study of tarantism and Rossi's collaboration with Ernesto de Martino.
• Carnival research (1972–1976): studies carried out with students from the Cultural Anthropology course at the University of Salerno, emphasizing participatory fieldwork.
• Rome and Trastevere: reports on Roman outskirts in the late 1950s, documenting popular and marginal cultures.
• Audiovisual materials: photographs, sound recordings and videotapes treated as primary research tools, not merely supplementary documents.

Highlights

The exhibition features unpublished field images from the Annabella Rossi Collection and the photo-rhythmic film Serenata d’arte varia by Francesco De Melis, a voice-and-piano composition assembled around Rossi’s street images that recreates the tempo of past popular performances and street artists.

• Curators: Stefania Baldinotti, Massimo Cutrupi, Francesco Quaranta.
• Collaboration: Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio Immateriale (ICPI) and Museo delle Civiltà (MuCIV).
• Key publications by Rossi: Le feste dei poveri (1969), Lettere da una tarantata (1970), Carnevale si chiamava Vincenzo (1977).

Why visit

The exhibition illuminates Annabella Rossi’s innovative approach: pioneering use of audiovisual media in ethnographic research, attention to popular and marginalized practices, and the transformation of documentary material into expressive research. Visitors can view primary materials that document southern Italian social life and the working-class neighborhoods of Rome between the 1950s and 1970s.

Practical information

Dates: 02/04/2026 – 31/05/2026. Venue: Museo di Roma in Trastevere. For opening hours, ticketing and guided visits check the museum’s official website or institutional channels for the latest information and bookings.