Silvia Gentili is a multidisciplinary artist, workshop facilitator, and independent curator, based in Rome.
Gentili’s polyvocal practice spans video, performance, photography, sound, and writing, focusing on intimate narratives that transcend individuality to resonate with a collective identity.
Her research delves into the notion of trauma as it unveils in the human and more-than-human bodies. Creating a corporeal vocabulary through her gestures, she explores modalities of self-representation tied to physical and mental pain, illness, and the feminine experience. Gentili engages in dialogues with other women, addressing how they navigate illness and the effects of gender-based violence.
Her practice embraces dance theories and kinaesthetic expression, enabling the body to move as it desires, releasing it from somatic and social constraints. By attuning herself to the body’s unique way of communicating—which we often fail to listen to—she explores the dynamic interplay between movement and stillness. She uses these elements to unravel embedded memories and address the question of how we coexist with trauma.
By entangling her body with nature, she investigates how human and environmental bodies process and adapt to distress in their quest for balance—whether through integration or expulsion— while confronting social shocks, such as climate crisis and solastalgia.
Writing plays a foundational role in her practice. Her latest works emerge from text and culminate in visual and performative forms, often beginning with a single word or unfolding from a series of interconnected texts.
EDUCATION
2015, MA Photography, London College of Communication
2006, Diploma Photography, Istituto Europeo di Design, Rome
2005, BA Anthropology, University of Rome La Sapienza
AWARDS
2022, PREMIO COMBAT PRIZE 22, finalist
2021, PREMIO COMBAT PRIZE 21, Recommended artist from the jury.
2021, Shutter Hub membership bursary
2016, Magnum Photo Graduates Award, Nominated
2016, Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Shortlisted
2015, The MACK Award, Commendation
2014, Workshop with Broomberg & Chanarin, London College of Communication
2011, Donkeyartprize, finalist
RESIDENCIES
2022, SIM Residency, Reykjavík, Iceland
2021, PILOTENKUECHE Online Residency Program
2017, SIM Residency, Reykjavík
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