Ukrainian Art Weeks
From 16 to 23 June, Esperienza Europa – David Sassoli hosted the second in a striking series of solo exhibitions by Ukrainian women artists in Italy: “Unknown Italy” by Xenia Avanti, a photographer, artist and curator.
“Un Ponte di Colori” (“A Bridge of Colours”), affiliated with the Department of Culture of the National Congress of Ukrainian Associations in Italy (CNAUI), is bringing together an ever-wider circle of Ukrainian creatives.
Since 2007
Xenia Avanti has worked in photography.
Since 2014
Having started out in landscape and portrait photography, she has also been actively engaged in photojournalism, documenting the war in Ukraine.
From 2019 to 2025
She worked as a journalist, combining the power of words with the power of the photographic image.
Since 2021
She has turned to graphic art and painting.
Since 2023
She has been working with installations, broadening her artistic language.
Over the years Xenia has organised, curated or taken part in numerous art and photography projects in Ukraine and abroad. Among the most important are the international photo project “Ukraine, War and Peace” in Riga; the solo exhibitions “The Carpathians. Escape”, “Polissia. Immersion” and “A Dream of the Carpathians”; the Italia Abbandonata exhibition in Pisa; and the curatorial projects “War and Peace” in Germany and “On the Edge of War”, shown in Pisa, Milan and Ancona. Since 2023 she has also taken part in the Divinarte international festival in Nepi.
The “Unknown Italy” project, on which Xenia Avanti worked from 2021 to 2025, grew out of years of travel through the country’s regions and in-depth research into its cultural heritage. It is a story not of tourist routes but of the real, authentic Italy: ancient churches, abandoned castles, the ruins of medieval fortresses, small towns where time seems to stand still and centuries-old walls still hold the memory of generations.
Visiting hundreds of little-known towns, the artist discovered places that hardly ever make it into the guidebooks, yet it is precisely these that preserve the true spirit of the country. Each photograph in the exhibition is not only an artistic image but also a kind of record of cultural memory — a reminder of the value of an architectural heritage that deserves protection and care.
“Unknown Italy” is an invitation to see the country differently: quiet, majestic, timeless. Through Xenia Avanti’s photographs, viewers discover an Italy where history lives not only in world-famous monuments but also in small details, narrow lanes, ancient walls and a silence that says more than words ever could.
