Borderline Modernity is an exhibition by Italian photographer Giovanna Silva that explores architecture and the modern and contemporary city in Sicily and Poland. These two geographical areas on the borders of the European Union have a complex relationship with modernity and the architecture produced after World War II: in Sicily, this architecture is often linked to uncontrolled urban and industrial development and is not immune to speculation, while in Poland during the same period, architecture was also a political tool linked to socialist ideology.

Silva's photographic work offers an original and anti-monumental view of architecture, seeking the essence of spaces and buildings in seemingly insignificant details that reveal the real life that takes place there. Silva has photographed modern architecture in various Italian and foreign cities, publishing numerous books on the subject. In recent years, she has documented modern Sicilian architecture. The landscape Silva captures includes bold and courageous, sometimes silent, post-war architecture designed by local and non-local architects, presenting an idea of modernity in Sicily that is far removed from the clichés associated with its Greek, Roman, Arab-Norman or Baroque past.

The photographs of Sicily on display are linked to the photographic project dedicated to post-war architecture in five Polish cities: Warszawa, Wrocław, Kraków, Katowice and Tychy. In Poland, Silva investigates the socialist architecture built from the end of the Second World War until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, offering an interesting parallel reading between political history and architectural styles, from rationalism and socialist realism to postmodernism, which contributes to the narrative of different political periods, from Stalinism to the advent of Solidarność. The photographic project on Poland will be exhibited at the Archeology of Photography Foundation, where Silva's photographs will be juxtaposed with archive shots by several Polish photographers whose archives are preserved by the foundation: Maria Chrząszczowa, Mariusz Hermanowicz, Tadeusz Sumiński and Antoni Zdebiak.

The exhibition is curated by Pietro Airoldi and Izabela Anna Rzeczkowska-Moren, members of the :AFTER group whose focus is related to the debate on architecture in Sicily. The Photographic Project between Italy and Poland is produced by the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw and is realized with the contribution of the General Directorate of Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and the Italian Cultural Institute in Krakow.