To tell the story of Genoa through its people, photographer Stefano Guindani began in a laboratory. He chose to start with researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology, he explained, “because that is where they imagine the future.” The result is the exhibition Genoa, the Energy of the City, open from 10 November to 4 December at Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura and beneath the portico on Via XII Ottobre. The same photographs are collected in a book produced by Axpo Italia.
The book features three researchers from the institute and one robot. Giulio Sandini is the founder of the COgNiTive Architecture for Collaborative Technologies (CONTACT) unit, where he is now a Visiting Scientist. Alberto Diaspro coordinates the Nanoscopy & NIC@IIT unit. Barbara Mazzolai is the IIT’s Associate Director for Robotics and coordinates the Bioinspired Soft Robotics unit. The robot is iCub, the humanoid robot developed by the IIT.
Two portraits from the hill
Sandini’s and Diaspro’s units work at the Center for Human Technologies, the IIT centre at Erzelli.
CONTACT studies how people understand and collaborate with one another, and uses what it learns to design robots that work alongside people and make themselves understood. Nanoscopy & NIC@IIT develops optical microscopes capable of seeing details smaller than those a traditional microscope can distinguish. The CHT, in Building B, is also home to the Nikon Imaging Center, which Diaspro founded in 2014. It was the first of its kind in Italy.
The exhibition
Genoa, the Energy of the City, photographs by Stefano Guindani. Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura and the portico on Via XII Ottobre, Genoa, from 10 November to 4 December 2026.
