Music [in] Photo – Sonic Images

From November 27, 2025 to January 10, 2026, the Sala della Musica of Biblioteca Salaborsa hosts the exhibition Music [in] Photo – Sonic Images.

Not merely the sum of three photographic exhibitions, but a journey through memory and creativity that celebrates Bologna’s musical tradition and its evolution, bringing historical and contemporary photography into dialogue.

The exhibition path is promoted by the Associazione Fotografica Tempo e Diaframma APS in collaboration with the Associazione TerzoTropico APS and curated by photojournalist Gabriele Fiolo.

• “Live in BO”
  Photographs by Michele Nucci, curated by Gabriele Fiolo
  For more than forty years, through his lens Michele Nucci has preserved Bologna’s musical history, offering viewers not only the chronicle of a concert, but the pulsating soul of an entire city. Music lives on stage. That is where it takes shape, amid the spotlight and the breath of the audience, in the faces of the musicians and the hands moving across instruments. “Live in BO” brings together a selection of images spanning decades of live music, intertwining genres, trends, and generations—from early club concerts to major events in city squares.

• Visual Echoes
  Photographs by Massimo Sciacca, curated by Gabriele Fiolo
  Visual Echoes is an excerpt from Massimo Sciacca’s project “Rock Under Siege.” During the siege of the city of Sarajevo in 1995, the Bolognese photographer tells the story of a movement of silent yet powerful resistance, in which music becomes refuge and cry, consolation and rebellion. His photographs do not merely document improvised concerts, but speak of a way to resist not only war, but fear itself, reminding oneself and the world that art can survive anything.

• Photography Contest – Music Becomes Image
  Selection from the national photography contest
  The photographic exhibition “Music [in] Photo – Sonic Images” stems from the national contest promoted by the Associazione Fotografica Tempo e Diaframma APS, in collaboration with Associazione TerzoTropico-APS, which achieved extraordinary success: over 1,000 photographs submitted by 207 photographers from all over Italy. The works explore music in all its nuances: the energy of a concert, the silence charged with anticipation, the poetry of a gesture, the intimacy of listening. To evaluate the submitted photographs, a jury of five figures from the worlds of photography, music, and visual culture was selected.

Initiative promoted by the Culture and Creativity Department of the Municipality of Bologna as part of the actions of Bologna UNESCO City of Music.
The Sala della Musica, located on the second floor of Biblioteca Salaborsa, is the first permanent exhibition route in Italy dedicated to the history of a city’s popular music.