Benedetta Ristori is a visual artist whose photographic work focuses on peripheral geographies, both literal and symbolic, where individual experience intersects with broader systems of history, care, and social change. Working primarily in portraiture and landscape photography, Ristori’s practice centers on long-term investigations.

Among these are: East (2015-2018), book self-published in 2018, Lay Off (2015-present), Take Care(2018-2020), and You Don’t Need Soil To Grow (2021-2023) book published by The Eriskay Connection in 2024. Ristori’s work has been exposed in national and international exhibitions, including Scuderie del Quirinale, Triennale Milano, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Galerie Binome, Plato Gallery, and Si Fest. Her photography has been featured in publications such as Repubblica, VICE, Bloomberg Businessweek, Die Zeit, Forbes, Document Journal, and Vogue Italia.

The area of Ferropolis was the centre of the brown coal industry in central Germany until thirty years ago. It’s the fate of many similar industrial sites in Germany and other parts of the world that are being closed down in the course of the global change in the world of labour leaving behind fallow, sometimes abandoned, empty areas. In agriculture, the German term ‘Brache’ referred to farmland that had to rest between two sowings so that it could regenerate. This void often initiates processes of transformation and regeneration. By preserving and converting a place to a new use, it retains its identity and history, creating a fusion with the present and a reinterpretation of the place. The aim of the project shot during the short residency is to capture the new meaning given to the site of Ferropolis during Splash! a contemporary music festival that creates a layer of memory through different temporary environments and people.