The Body Becomes an Alphabet: Pauline Faieff Brings the Alphabet: first breath to Rome
At Porte Rosse, in the heart of San Lorenzo, a radical, poetic, and political visual language—expressed entirely through the human body—makes its debut from July 7 to 12, 2026.
In an age when the body is observed, judged, corrected, censored, commodified, or filtered to the point of nearly losing its own truth, Pauline Faieff chooses the opposite approach: to give it back its voice. Not as a pointless provocation, not as an exhibition for its own sake, but as an act of reappropriation.
Thus was born the Alphabet: first breath, the artist’s solo exhibition, curated by Annelise Stern, which will be hosted in Rome at the Porte Rosse space in the San Lorenzo neighborhood, from July 7 to 12, 2026.
The project presents itself as a complete visual alphabet: twenty-six photographs, one for each letter, composed exclusively through the human body and accompanied by a poem. But reducing the Alphabet to a photographic sequence would be limiting. At the heart of the work lies not only the image of the body, but the possibility of rewriting its meaning.
Here are some of them:
Faieff constructs a language in which the body ceases to be the object of others’ gaze and becomes once again a subject, a sign, a word, a presence. Where algorithms obscure, social norms constrain, and the public gaze often seeks to correct what does not conform to the norms, the artist proposes a new grammar: imperfect, free, vulnerable, deeply human.
The work was created in Martinique, Pauline Faieff’s homeland, over eight months of work and three solitary sessions. No artificial light, no makeup, no staged set. Only the body, the space, the breath. The artist returns to the places where, once upon a time, she felt diminished, almost stripped of herself, and remains there until she transforms that memory into language.
The result is not a portrait of a woman, but an open threshold. An invitation to look at oneself without cruelty, to recognize in the body not a battlefield, but a possible home. A home that is not perfect, not tamed, not conformist: alive.
It is no coincidence that Rome is described as the “first breath” of the project. It is the first time these letters have left the screen and physically entered a room. The first time a visitor can stand before a letter that is also a body, a symbol, a wound, a rebirth.
And perhaps recognize something of themselves in it.
The choice of Porte Rosse adds further significance to the debut. The space, housed in a historic former trattoria whose vaults once welcomed figures like Pasolini and Elsa Morante, is today a place dedicated to free expression and born from the initiative of three women. A particularly fitting setting for a work that speaks of freedom, belonging, and the reclaiming of one’s inner terrain.
The Alphabet does not simply ask to be observed. It calls for a more intimate participation. It asks the viewer to suspend judgment, to unlearn certain rigidities of the gaze, to traverse the body not as a scandal, but as a primal language.
“My art invites us to reconnect with ourselves and free ourselves from social stereotypes, to build a future of expression and liberation. We should never be afraid to be free,” says Pauline Faieff.
Active between France and Italy, Faieff has already exhibited her work in international settings and has built a strong presence on social media as well. For her, nudity is not merely an artistic medium, but a manifesto: a space for emancipation, transformation, and poetic resistance.
Curator Annelise Stern, who has been dedicated for years to promoting women artists and studying the female gaze, frames the project within a broader reflection: how does art change when the female body ceases to be represented according to external codes and returns to producing its own language?
The Alphabet: first breath answers this question with twenty-six letters and a single essential gesture: breathing into one’s own image, finally without asking permission.
Information
Exhibition: the Alphabet: first breath
Artist: Pauline Faieff
Curated by: Annelise Stern
Venue: Porte Rosse, Via dei Sabelli 6-8, 00185 Rome
Dates: July 7–12, 2026
Hours: 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Private Preview / Opening: July 7, 2026, 6:00 PM
Admission: free
