I like wine, but I never imagined it could become the subject of a personal reflection on relationships.

“Perno, Genea Illogica” started as a collaboration with Cantina Piemontese, a series of pleasant stays at Castello di Perno, and evolved into approaching the vineyard not as a scenic backdrop, but as a constructed and disciplined space. The Langhe become a field of observation where geometry, repetition and regulation shape vegetal life, revealing structures that echo emotional and relational systems.

Vines are guided, tied and bent to follow a predetermined logic. Yet within this controlled framework, friction emerges: asymmetries, deviations, moments of resistance. This tension between order and drift forms the conceptual core of the project. It mirrors the dynamics of intimate relationships, where attempts at stability coexist with emotional pressure, imbalance and silent transformation.

The “perno,” the pivot, functions both structurally and symbolically. It is the point around which relationships rotate and change, whether with the land, with another person, or with oneself. Photography, in this context, does not aim to describe or document. It becomes a way of translating external structures into internal states, turning space into a form of thought.

Only on the surface is this a project about wine and vineyards. More deeply, it reflects on how we live within the systems we create, and how something persistently human resists complete order.

Curated by Chiara Oggoni Tiepolo, Nanni Fontana.

Design by Eva Scaini.