Works of
Francesco Merlini

Curated by
Steve Bisson

Orari
Sunday 4:30pm–7:30pm

Lab27 presents the solo exhibition “The Flood” by photographer Francesco Merlini.
At the threshold between reality and symbolism, The Flood recounts the memory of the disaster that struck Tbilisi in 2015. Lives were lost, many families were left homeless, a zoo was destroyed, and the city was left in shock. Georgia’s capital became a desert filled with dangerous animals—the zoo lost over 300 of its inhabitants.
An influential leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church attributed the floods to the “sin” of the former communist regime, which had built the zoo using money collected from the destruction of churches and the melting of their bells—a kind of divine punishment. Reality, however, is less grotesque: floods breach human defenses everywhere in the world. Nature moves beyond the illusions of containment.
Merlini’s photographs operate on this threshold of uncertainty, on a precarious balance where the clamor of disaster seems muted beneath a gray patina of oblivion.

Francesco Merlini was born in Aosta in 1986 and currently lives in Milan. After earning a degree in Industrial Design from the Politecnico di Milano, he fully dedicated himself to photography. Having initially covered Italian news, he now primarily works on long-term personal projects, reportage, and editorial work, always seeking a connection between his photojournalistic background and a strong interest in metaphor and symbolism.
In 2016, he was selected by the British Journal of Photography for “The Talent Issue: Ones to Watch”, and in 2020 he was chosen for the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie. In 2021, he was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award.
His images have been published in national and international magazines and newspapers, including The Washington Post, Financial Times, Le Monde, L’Espresso, Internazionale, Corriere della Sera, D La Repubblica, Sette, Wired, GQ, Die Welt, La Stampa, and Rolling Stone. His projects have been exhibited worldwide in both solo and group exhibitions.
Francesco’s first book, "The Flood", published by Void, was released in 2021. Alongside his photography career, over the past five years he has coordinated the international documentary agency Prospekt, serving as photo editor and curator, working closely with some of the most awarded contemporary documentary photographers and with leading magazines around the world.