Theater of Italy (Italian: Teatro d’Italia) is a long-term series by Massimo Siragusa, made across several years of travel from Northern to Southern Italy and consolidated in 2012 (book and exhibitions), that treats public space as a stage where civic history leaves visible traces.
After years in photojournalism, Siragusa turns to the slower work of looking. The project asks how a "unitary face" might be sensed within Italy’s regional variety, and how identity gathers through streets, gardens, monuments, and rural edges rather than through headline events. Calling Italy a "land of theaters," he approaches squares and historical centers as palcoscenici—a theatrical term for stages: settings that can evoke what happened there even when they appear empty.
Siragusa often works from a distanced, sometimes elevated position, keeping the frame steady so relationships between buildings, paving, vegetation, and signage become legible. People are largely absent, which shifts attention to what he describes as the territory’s "wrinkles": wear, repairs, and the marks of administration. Color is consistent but muted, tending toward light, pastel-like tones and an even ambient brightness that connects architectural planes without relying on dramatic contrast. He works almost exclusively in a horizontal format, using stillness and careful framing to keep the site—not its visitors—at the center of attention.
In discussions of Italian landscape photography, Theater of Italy is placed alongside the Views legacy associated with Luigi Ghirri, which redirected attention from postcard views toward contemporary, lived topographies. Reception includes formal recognition: the book received the Marco Bastianelli Award in 2013, and the work was shown in 2012 at Forma Galleria in Milan, at Cortona On The Move, and during the 13th Venice Biennale of Architecture.
