This body of work stems from Nadia Cianelli’s journeys through the Brazilian Amazon between 2016 and 2025. From her very first stay, the artist perceived this land as the keeper of an ancient memory of the world, a place where human beings and nature still speak the same language and where the boundary between the visible and the invisible becomes blurred. Forest and river are sources of life and, at the same time, dwelling places for spirits, enchanted beings and wandering souls. Even the simplest daily gestures retain a spiritual dimension.

Within this suspended world, Cianelli met Myrupu, a Desana shaman from the Upper Rio Negro, heir to the knowledge passed down by his father, Kissibi, and his ancestors. Through this encounter, she was introduced to Desana cosmology, a worldview grounded in the balance between human beings and nature, in which all elements of the world are considered alive: trees, water and stones. The forest is presence. It is spirit. It is origin.

The shaman safeguards the dialogue between the natural and the supernatural, serving as a bridge between these two realms. Smoke, fire, sacred plants and the bahsésé rituals become tools of connection and healing, through which the wounds of both body and spirit are tended to.

Contemporary Amazonia bears the marks of exploitation, violence, climate change and globalisation. Yet, beneath these transformations, an ancient form of knowledge endures, fragile yet powerful, which Indigenous peoples continue to preserve and defend.

Espaço do Meio emerges from an immersion in a place that transforms perception and reshapes the way the relationship between human beings, nature and otherness is understood.

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The exhibition is organized as part of the collaboration between Ulteriore and RFI – Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (Gruppo FS).
The project is co-curated by Teodora Malavenda and Roberta Fuorvia, curator and co-founder of The Docks.
The exhibition design is by architect Rosanna Sapia.

Nadia Cianelli’s journey has long been shaped by travel and photography. Her curiosity about different places and cultures led her to work in the tourism sector, following a path that diverged from her original academic background. Photography entered her life at a later stage, gradually becoming an essential part of both her way of observing the world and her artistic practice.

Her photographic work is primarily rooted in travel and in encounters with people, cultures and landscapes. Her experiences in the Amazon and her engagement with the Dessana people have profoundly shaped her perspective, contributing to an ongoing reflection on the relationship between human beings and nature.

From 2015 to 2022, she served as FIAF Regional Delegate for Umbria. She is currently a board member of the cultural association Istanti Fotografia e Cultura in Perugia. She has participated in both solo and group exhibitions and complements her photographic research, with educational projects and workshops, with a particular focus on alternative photographic processes, such as cyanotype, and on the photobook as a narrative form and a vehicle for memory.