Eight years after Storm Vaia, photographer Matteo de Mayda, together with writer Cosimo Bizzarri, returns to the affected communities to offer residents the space and tools to tell the stories of and represent their own territory. During 2026, thanks to the Premio Basilico, de Mayda and Bizzarri involve around fifty teenagers aged between 13 and 18 in three workshops.

Through mask-making, cyanotype printing and collage, participants are invited to connect their inner worlds with the landscape around them, intertwining memories of Vaia with reflections, confessions and dreams.

The book brings the photographer’s images into dialogue with the visual experiments created by the young participants. By presenting the perspectives of the youngest members of these communities, the project offers a new and essential viewpoint, encouraging reflection on the consequences of the storm and the processes of recovery, which may only be fully assessed and understood over the course of decades.

Published by bruno in 2026, the volume continues and expands upon the research begun with There's No Calm After the Storm (2024).

ORDER
AWARDS
Gabriele Basilico Prize 2025

EXHIBITIONS
Ordine Architetti PPC Provincia di Milano

TALKS & SIGNINGS
bruno, Venezia
Polycopies, Paris

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Matteo de Mayda
Visual experiments together with communities hit by Vaia.

Edited by Cosimo Bizzarri
Design and publication by bruno
Image toning by Melissa Pallini
With an essay by Roberta Valtorta
Translations Tom Kelland
Printed by Grafiche Veneziane in October 2026 

144 Pages
17x22 cm
Hardcover, cloth-bound, with silk-screen printing

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