Image: Wolfsoniana, Genoa
Genoa’s Ducale Spazio Aperto will host 'Ponte Morandi: deconstructions' from 24 July to 30 August 2026, a free exhibition of photographs by Gigi Cifali focused on the remains of the Morandi Bridge after its collapse. The show presents seven works from Cifali’s series 'Scomposizioni' and is curated by Gianluigi Ricuperati, with a critical text by Riccardo Venturi. The project is shown in dialogue with the Memoriale 14 Agosto 2018 and the Comitato Parenti Vittime Ponte Morandi.
According to the exhibition material, the photographs were made in 2020 inside the warehouse where the seized bridge fragments were kept before being moved elsewhere. The Morandi Bridge collapsed in Genoa on 14 August 2018. The source text says the viaduct, built in the 1960s, remains at the center of the legal process related to the disaster, and that the structural elements shown in the exhibition are still preserved as evidence in that case.
Cifali’s photographs focus on the monumental fragments of reinforced concrete and steel cables as they lie stacked in a closed hangar, covered by transparent plastic sheets. The exhibition text describes the images as showing isolated forms seen through layers of transparency, suggesting objects stripped of gravitational force and charged with the memory of the collapse. Rather than treating the remnants as inert debris, the presentation frames them as material witnesses to a public event that is still being processed legally and socially.
The exhibition also connects the bridge disaster to wider environmental questions. The accompanying text points to the impact of cement production and the use of concrete in contemporary construction, noting the material’s contribution to global CO2 emissions and the way cementification can seal soil, worsen hydrogeological instability and damage natural habitats. The source also states that the tragedy could have been avoided through periodic maintenance, which was not carried out, and that the concession at the time was held by Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI), a company controlled by Atlantia.
The legal context remains part of the work’s framing. The exhibition note says a first-instance verdict in the case was expected in 2026, and that the first hearing in the proceedings took place in 2022. It also emphasizes that the bridge remains a civic and political issue, requiring collective recognition of what the material fragments now signify. Cifali’s project presents the ruins not only as evidence from a disaster, but as objects that continue to carry social memory.
'Ponte Morandi: deconstructions' opens to the public on 24 July 2026 at Ducale Spazio Aperto. Visiting hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm, with Monday closed. The exhibition runs through 30 August 2026 and admission is free.
