Pauline Faieff. the Alphabet: first breath

In a world that polices, exploits or censors bodies, one artist answers with a radical act of reclamation. Pauline Faieff presents the Alphabet, a complete visual language written entirely by the human body and an invitation to everyone to reclaim their own image. The exhibition makes its physical debut at Porte Rosse, in Rome’s San Lorenzo neighbourhood, from July 7th to 12th 2026.

the Alphabet is a complete visual alphabet of 26 photographs, one letter per image, each formed by the body alone and a poem. But its true subject is freedom: the freedom to be seen without filters, without fear, without permission. Where algorithms suppress and social norms shrink the body into something to be corrected, the Alphabet turns it back into language and that language belongs to everyone.

The work was born in Martinique, Pauline Faieff’s birthplace, over eight months and three solitary sessions. The artist returned to the very place where she was once made to feel small, and stayed until the body could finally speak: no artificial light, no makeup, no staging. What emerged is not a portrait of one woman, but a tool anyone can pick up: a way of looking at one’s own body with tenderness instead of judgment.