Intesa Sanpaolo presents, at Gallerie d’Italia

Turin from 18 March to 6 September 2026, the exhibition

"Nick Brandt. The Day May Break", curated by Arianna Rinaldo.

The exhibition focuses on one of the leading contemporary photographers working on the themes of climate crisis and environmental destruction.

Launched in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, The Day May Break is a global series in four chapters that marks a new phase in Brandt's artistic journey. The project refocuses the artist’s gaze on people, animals and environments devastated by climate change in regions of the world among the least responsible for the crisis, yet disproportionately affected by its consequences.

For the first time, all four chapters of The Day May Break are exhibited together at Gallerie d’Italia – Turin in an immersive display of 63 large-format images that offer a vision both stark and poetic – of what remains, and what, against all odds, still offers hope. The fourth chapter of the series was commissioned by Intesa Sanpaolo, in line with the Bank’s commitment to sustainability, social responsibility and culture as a driver of awareness.

Nick Brandt (London, 1964) is a deeply engaged artist whose work combines ethical rigour, narrative strength and formal elegance. Since the early 2000s, his artistic practice has focused on the progressive disappearance of the natural world and the devastating impact of human activity on the planet’s most vulnerable beings – people and animals. His images, of extraordinary beauty, captivate with aesthetic virtuosity that amplifies, rather than softens, the drama of the subjects portrayed.

Brandt’s work is distinguished by a methodical and meticulous approach: each chapter is the result of months of preparation, planning and collaboration with local crews who know the lands and communities involved. The scenes are carefully staged; light and atmosphere emerge through patience and responsiveness to nature’s unpredictable elements. Weeks of printing and image selection follow, in a process with no shortcuts, aiming to establish a direct and profound dialogue with the viewer.

Chapter One, The Day May Break (2021), made in Kenya and Zimbabwe, is set in sanctuaries for animals rescued from habitat destruction and poaching. Here, people and animals affected by climate change – displaced by devastating cyclones or impoverished by prolonged drought – are portrayed together, within the same frame, in suspended, almost surreal scenes that convey shared dignity and a common sense of loss.

Chapter Two, Sanctuary (2022), photographed in Bolivia, continues this reflection on another continent. In a country of extraordinary biodiversity, now increasingly threatened by fires, floods and drought, Brandt captures people and animals marked by climate collapse, united by a shared fate faced with resilience and dignity.

With SINK / RISE, Chapter Three (2023), created in the Fiji Islands, the artist turns to the near future. The people portrayed, photographed underwater performing everyday gestures, represent communities that, in the coming decades, will lose land, homes and livelihoods due to rising sea levels. The beauty of the marine environment is offset by a quiet tension – an omen of imminent loss.

The exhibition concludes with The Echo of Our Voices, Chapter Four (2024), commissioned by Intesa Sanpaolo and shown for the first time. Shot in Jordan, it portrays Syrian refugee families living in conditions of permanent displacement. In a desert landscape that becomes a symbol of water scarcity exacerbated by climate change, Brandt offers images of collective strength, dignity and hope, focusing on resilience and the shared desire for a better future.

A small section of the exhibition is dedicated to the behind-the-scenes of Nick Brandt’s work, offering visitors the opportunity to enter into the photographer’s creative process and to gain insight into the production complexity underpinning each image. Through a selection of photographs and video footage captured during the various stages of work across the countries involved, this section enables visitors to understand the effort and commitment required to shape each photograph, in which human beings and animals were captured simultaneously within the same frame.

The Day May Break is at once a silent and urgent call to action: through images of powerful visual and emotional impact, Nick Brandt compels us to acknowledge a truth too often ignored – that the destinies of human beings, animals and the planet are profoundly and inextricably intertwined.

The exhibition catalogue, published by Società Editrice Allemandi in Italian and English, features an essay by the curator and texts written in the first person by the photographer.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of free events and talks forming part of the public programme #INSIDE, held at the museum every Wednesday. On 18 March, the opening day of the exhibition, a conversation between the artist Nick Brandt and the curator Arianna Rinaldo will take place at 6.00 pm in the museum’s immersive room. This will be followed at 7.00 pm by a book signing of the catalogue.

The museum in Turin, together with those in Milan, Naples and Vicenza, is part of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Gallerie d’Italia museum project, led by Michele Coppola, the Bank’s Executive Director of Art, Culture and Historical Heritage and General Director of the Gallerie d’Italia.

USEFUL INFORMATION

WHERE: Gallerie d’Italia - Turin, Piazza San Carlo 156, Turin

OPENING TIMES: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.; Wednesday from 9.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.; closed on Monday; last entry 90 minutes before closing

TICKETS: full price €10, reduced €8, free admission for members, schools, under-18s and on the first Sunday of the month; special reduced price of €5 for under-26s and Intesa Sanpaolo Group customers

INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS: http://www.gallerieditalia.com, torino@gallerieditalia.com, Toll-free number 800.167619