SCUROCHIARO
Photo exhibition
Tribute to the 30th anniversary of Elba Isola Musicale d’Europa
Alexandra Kremer-Khomassouridze / Anna Riabova
1-13 September 2026
Sala Espositiva “Telemaco Signorini”
Calata Italia 39, Portoferraio, Isola d’Elba
17:00 – 22:00
Every concert begins in the same way: the hall falls into darkness, silence takes shape, and then light reveals the musicians. It is an almost ritual passage from darkness to light, from anticipation to emotion.
This exhibition, too, is born from a dialogue between two ways of seeing the world. On one side, the black-and-white photography of Alexandra Kremer-Khomassouridze – essential, powerful and deeply evocative – reveals the strength of light through shadow, capturing vast landscapes, architectural forms and enigmatic figures suspended between reality and imagination. On the other, the luminous colours of Anna Riabova transform reality into images of such delicacy that they seem almost like watercolours.
Two different visual languages, two artistic sensibilities, united by the same pursuit: giving shape to light and emotion.
Like music, photography thrives on contrast, nuance, expectation and revelation. In these images, as in the works of the great composers, there is no light without shadow, no sound without silence, no tension without resolution.
Presented as a tribute to the Elba Isola Musicale d’Europa Festival, SCUROCHIARO invites visitors to follow this same journey – from seeing to listening, from image to memory – and to discover how photography and music have always spoken a common language.
SCUROCHIARO is more than the encounter of two photographic styles; it is the meeting of two ways of perceiving the world. And, as in music, it is precisely through the dialogue of different voices that harmony is born: a harmony woven from contrasts, subtle shades and shared emotions, where light finds its meaning in shadow and art becomes a bridge between cultures, sensibilities and ways of seeing.
For Alexandra Kremer-Khomassouridze, Elba Isola Musicale d’Europa has been part of her photographic life for many years. Over the years, she returned repeatedly to Elba, photographing concerts, rehearsals and backstage life, including such outstanding musicians as Gidon Kremer, Martha Argerich, Thomas Quasthoff, Edgar Moreau, Mario Brunello, Stefano Bollani, Mischa Maisky, Giya Kancheli, and Aleksandre Raskatov.
These photographs formed part of her long-term photographic project Life Music, devoted to the world of classical musicians beyond the stage, and connected to her book Life Music and a series of international exhibitions.
In 2026, for the Festival’s 30th anniversary, Kremer-Khomassouridze returns to Elba as an exhibiting artist. SCUROCHIARO is conceived as a personal tribute to a Festival she has photographed and followed over many years.
She presents works from Divina Commedia, a series developed from photographs made during her years working within the world of theatre. Figures, gestures and shadows, removed from their original performances, form an independent visual narrative between reality and imagination. Black-and-white photography is combined with subtle hand-painted interventions.
Kremer-Khomassouridze invited photographer Anna Riabova to share the exhibition because of the contrast between their visual languages. While Divina Commedia is predominantly black and white, theatrical and expressive, Riabova’s Stillness works with colour, interiors and quiet observation. Their differences create the dialogue at the centre of SCUROCHIARO: two independent ways of seeing brought together in one space.
The title connects the exhibition to music itself: darkness and light, silence and sound. SCUROCHIARO marks both a return to Elba and a new chapter in Kremer-Khomassouridze’s long relationship with the Festival.