The exhibition Golden Dark Age by BR1 opened in the context of Fotografia Europea in April 2018.
The presentation, held within Palazzo Brami, developed across three conceptual levels, ideally connected by an invisible thread: the border.
A border—often elusive—that draws a new social geography in the Old Continent; that discriminates between individuals within the same society; that generates fear, exploitation, and new superstitions; that replaces the pursuit of freedom and tolerance, which Europe has strived for over five centuries, with a new regime of deprivation.
This—and more—is the subject of BR1’s artistic work.
The first of the three conceptual layers is revealed in the courtyard, with the display of photographs from the series Golden Dark Age—created for the Fotografia Europea 2018 off circuit—in which the artist addresses the theme of the veil, its cultural meaning, and its mystery. The images dwell on the contrast between the opulence of the isothermal blanket—an emblem of Western society’s affluence—and the desolation of those who are wrapped in it, arriving from distant shores with no belongings and stripped of dignity. This reading is complemented by Annalisa Pellino’s critical text, which assigns new meaning to the veil: losing its charge of discrimination and oppression, it becomes a protector of female intimacy, threatened by the spectacle-driven society.
The second conceptual layer unfolds behind the photographs, within Spazio C21 space, as a kind of in-depth exploration. Here, BR1 uses other techniques—painting, sculpture, and video—to illustrate the theme of barriers, both physical and cultural, that separate the peoples of the Mediterranean and divide Islamic tradition from the secular culture of the West. This space focuses on the new walls, the notion of “privatized” freedom, unrecognized rights, communication, and inclusion. Of particular note are the testimonies of BR1’s activist work in public spaces (documented through photos of urban actions and beyond), which remind us that the question of the “Other” and of integration must be faced head-on, not ignored. The ultimate goal of social inclusion is the integration of every individual into society, regardless of limiting factors.
The third conceptual space is located apart from the previous ones, at the entrance to Lo Studio’s offices.
It hosts a selection of works in which the themes of equity and equal opportunity between cultures are enriched by a variety of everyday life images, developed through collage and painting.
Here, the border lies in our imagination—between the slit of the niqab exposing a woman’s eyes and the colorful folds of a vibrant hijab.
The presentation of these works fuels reflection on a theme loaded with emotional intensity in our contemporary society.
At the dawn of a millennium marked by a virulent wave of migratory flows—disrupting the already fragile political balance of the European Union—BR1’s work draws our attention to the social consequences of an issue that has already divided Western nations.
The dream of a united Europe, formed by a federation of peoples with ambitions of peace, prosperity, and solidarity, now faces the challenge of extra-European migration—and its social implications—generating insecurity in an already fragile moment marked by economic stagnation, political uncertainty, and labor precarity.
The sustainability of the European integration model therefore depends on the ability to meet this challenge, which our society must confront with a sense of responsibility.
This is why BR1’s work is significant.
If one of the goals of art is to provoke debate and reflection on our future, the artist shows us a path forward.
His language—immediate and respectful—emphasizes equality, freedom, and the respect for human rights, offering us both a lesson in civic responsibility and an invitation to imagine a new future.

The use of the veil in the Arab world is governed by an aniconic system that establishes a clear separation between public and private space. The root of the word hijab—the most common type of veil—implies something that hides from view, and conceived as a curtain separating the male world from the female one, it defines a space of separation but also establishes a visual field that points, in absentia, to what cannot be seen.
As J. L. Nancy pointed out, even in the etymology of the word “portrait” (from the Latin trahere), there is a sense of denial—something drawn out and brought to mind: the image takes the place of the subject, acknowledges its absence, but above all, makes it possible. Where does the subject’s truth and actuality reside? the philosopher asks. And again: isn’t a portrait, first and foremost, an encounter?
In a classic play of gazes between viewer and subject, BR1’s images foster a dialogic visual experience, one in which women are not merely looked at but also look back. In their ability to observe without being seen, they assert their agency, creating a space of resistance against the rules of a phallocentric, misogynistic regime of visibility—one excessively iconophilic in Western culture. While the veil repels the male gaze, it also becomes an image itself, literally marking female presence in public space, subverting the common narrative that sees it as a tool of submission rather than of self-determination. Women who choose to wear the veil often use it as a symbol of religious or at least cultural belonging.
In truth, it is the imposition of a visibility regime based on transparency—that, in the era of terrorist spectacle, has turned into control and surveillance—that renders it a site of subjugation.
Consider the recent debate on the veil (such as the burkini ban in France), which echoed the coercive unveiling campaigns imposed in colonized territories in the 19th and 20th centuries—even supported by some feminist voices.
What emerges from this anthropology of the gaze is a key aspect of BR1’s exploration of borders—both physical and mental—with the veil functioning as a synecdoche, symbolically subsuming the cultural complexity of an entire geographic area, for which the West has constructed a distorted mirror image of itself.
A social and performative object, semantically ambiguous and politically charged, the veil functions as a dispositif, disciplining the relationship between knowledge and power and the process of subjectivation inscribed through habitus. In BR1’s portraits, some women look back at us through a slit, as if peeking through a peephole. Their faces are shielded by golden fabric. While we recognize the isothermal blanket as an epitome of our times—requiring little commentary—no sense of possession is granted to us as viewers. A few details are enough to stage a secular kind of dressing that overturns the stereotype through interrogation. The subject is nothing other than what emerges from the fold or crack of the dispositif, and it is precisely this fissure that most captures our attention.