La Festa dell'Equatore by Rosa Lacavalla at BCC Appulo Lucana

From the Adriatic to the Atlantic: Rosa Lacavalla presents a fragment of her work La Festa dell'Equatore as part of the initiative Futuri Emergenti Italiani, promoted by the BCC Iccrea Group.

Overview

What is the value of roots when they cross the ocean? Rosa Lacavalla, a photographer and visual artist based in Bologna and originally from Barletta, returns to her home region as one of the featured protagonists of Futuri Emergenti Italiani (Emerging Italian Futures). The initiative, promoted by the BCC Iccrea Group, arrives at the BCC Appulo Lucana branch in Barletta, Italy, bringing a photographic research project of international scope to the public's attention.

As highlighted by the project's curator, Cesare Biagini Selvaggi: "Futuri Emergenti Italiani has brought many talents back home [...] thanks to the Cooperative Credit Banks (BCC), which host them within their spaces to showcase an excerpt of their daily, continuous, serious, and authentic research."

The initiative is not merely an exhibition series, but a scouting and development operation. The core concept is that the "future" is not an abstract idea, but something built through the concrete support of young talents (under 35) who often work abroad or in major urban centers while maintaining a deep bond with their roots. The project "brings artists back home," exhibiting their works in branches and spaces linked to the banks of their territories of origin. By bringing contemporary art into banks, the project breaks down the barrier of the elite museum, making artistic research accessible to the local community.

The work on display is a fragment of the project La Festa dell’Equatore, a symbolic crossing that intertwines the shifting celestial vault, the fragmented history of the artist’s Italian-Argentine family, and the practice of family constellations. The title pays homage to the rite of passage held aboard steamships bound for South America: crossing the Equator was a celebratory moment suspended between the hope of a new life and nostalgia for the land left behind. Lacavalla transforms this invisible line into a meeting point of three layers: the celestial (the shifting of the stars between the two hemispheres), the familial (the recovery of forgotten memories), and the psychological (the transgenerational bond). Here, myth and reality merge, inviting us to listen to the song of the stars echoing from the deep blue of eternity.

The complete mapping of the project is contained within the catalogue-guide Futuri Emergenti Italiani, published by Ecra and edited by Cesare Biagini Selvaggi. Inside the volume, the section dedicated to Rosa Lacavalla's artistic practice is enriched by a critical text written by the independent curator Laura Tota, originally from Andria, further consolidating the dialogue between the artist's research and her connections to the Apulian territory. The volume, available for purchase, features 101 artists selected for their ability to interpret the complexity of today's world, testifying to the vitality of contemporary Italian artistic languages and their indissoluble bond with their home territories.

The exhibition will be open to the public from June 12 to July 9, 2026. The vernissage will take place on Friday, June 12, at 11am at BCC Appulo Lucana in Barletta. Speakers at the event will include the artist, the President of the BCC, Dr. Michele Rinaldi, and the Branch Director, Dr. Vincenzo Valerio Mazzilli.

About The Artist

Rosa Lacavalla (b. 1993) is a photographer and visual artist based in Bologna. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Printmaking and a Master’s Degree in Photography from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, having enriched her practice through studies at Coventry University (UK) and an internship with the Cesura collective. Her work has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions internationally and featured in both print and online publications. Nominated for FUTURES 2024 by Der Greif, a finalist for the Luigi Ghirri Prize 2025, and a former artist-in-residence at Gate 27 in Turkey, she continues her research by integrating photography with other media.

Lacavalla’s practice creates a space where diverse narratives intertwine through a process of symbolic mending. Her research weaves together past and present, exploring the friction between the visible and the invisible, between what is heard and what remains unheeded. By connecting personal memory to universal phenomena – from the intimacy of childhood songs to the silent movements of the stars or the echoes carried by the wind – Lacavalla invites the audience to tune in to the whispers of a shared human experience.