With a background as a semi-professional basketball player, Marcello Coslovi (1992) is a visual artist living and working in Modena. After earning a degree in Law from UNIMORE, he studied contemporary photography at Spazio Labo’ in Bologna, where he graduated in 2021 and went on to work as a teaching assistant for the following two years. The principles of human rights and social justice, approached through a postcolonial lens, form the common thread that connects his legal education with his artistic practice in photography.

Coslovi develops long-term projects with a particular focus on individuals and communities living on the margins of society. With a vision grounded in interculturality, his work focuses on the increasingly fragile relations between different groups—often the result of migration—in today’s post-colonial world.
This interest is deeply rooted in his family history, particularly in the experience of his paternal grandfather, an Istrian refugee forced to leave his home and mother behind to begin a new life alone in Italy.

His practice, which straddles the line between documentary and staged photography, is characterized by a collaborative approach with his subjects, inspired by Édouard Glissant’s poetics of relation and Trinh T. Minh-ha’s notion of speaking nearby—rather than speaking for—with a particular emphasis on the act of listening. At times, this leads him to challenge the traditional divide between author and subject, questioning the power dynamics inherent in the medium and exploring the space between truth and fiction. He is interested in using photography both as a bridge to build relationships with individuals from communities to which he does not belong, and as a tool for deepening his understanding of contemporary issues that personally affect him.

His work has been exhibited in national and international institutions and festivals including Fotografia Europea (Reggio Emilia), Fondazione Francesco Fabbri (Treviso), Gibellina Photoroad Open Air & Site-specific Festival, Circulation(s) Festival (Paris), Hôtel Fontfreyde (Clermont-Ferrand), and the Biennale internationale des Rencontres Photographiques de Guyane (Cayenne).
With his personal project The Wrong Side of the Tracks, he was a finalist in Giovane Fotografia Italiana #09 (2022) and shortlisted for the Kassel Dummy Award 2022. In 2023, he was one of the winning artists of the Circulation(s) Festival in Paris and a finalist for the PhMuseum Photography Grant in the "Main Prize" category.

Today, he is co-founder and lecturer at Sugar Paper, a cultural space dedicated to promoting and disseminating contemporary photography through the photobook. In an era dominated by digital overconsumption and capitalist frenzy, Marcello Coslovi sees the photobook as a powerful tool to enforce a slowdown: a tactile experience that invites us to decelerate and rediscover the transformative value of slowness. In his view, it is also an ideal medium for creating spaces of dialogue around intercultural exchange.
He is also co-artistic director of the GU.PHO. Festival.

Since 2025, he has been collaborating as a visual artist with the Documentation Center of CRID (Interdepartmental Research Center on Discriminations and Vulnerabilities) at the Department of Law.

He is also an external collaborator who is invited annually to lead workshops at the G.B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna.

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2023

Winner of the 2023 “Call for Projects” Gibellina Photoroad Open Air & Site-specific Festival;


Finalist for the “Main Prize” PhMuseum 2023 Photography Grant;


Artist at the 2023 Circulation(s) Festival;

2022

Finalist of the 11th Edition of the Premio Francesco Fabbri per le Arti Contemporanee - “Contemporary Photography” section;


Finalist of Giovane Fotografia Italiana #09;


Finalist of the Kassel Dummy Award 2022;

2021

Finalist for the “Main Prize” Gomma Photography Grant 2021;


Finalist of the Marco Pesaresi Award 2021;


“Best Overall Portfolio,” Fotografia Europea 2021;


GUP Fresh Eyes 2021 Talent;

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MAGAZINES

L’Essenziale Studio, Vol.06 – October 2023, Focus on Marcello Coslovi, The Wrong Side of the Tracks by Laura De Marco;


        ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

Photoworks/Photography+ Street #16, “The Role of Abstraction in Documentary Street Photography”, written by Ricardo Reverón Blanco (August 2022);

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2025

Guest lecture at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

Artist talk for the third-year program at Spazio Labo’

2024

Two-day workshop at the Polo del ’900 in Turin on exhibition design and editorial planning.

Guest workshop at the G.B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna

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2025

“Alterazioni” is a group exhibition curated by Melissa Pallini and hosted by Fondazione Orestiadi for the fifth edition of the Gibellina Photoroad – Open Air & Site-specific Festival.

2024

“Davide Degano and Marcello Coslovi: Romanzo Meticcio and The Wrong Side of the Tracks” — an exhibition at the Polo del ’900 curated by Chiara Capodici, dedicated to the work of the two artists. The exhibition brings into dialogue the images from the artists’ projects and the working materials produced during two workshops: one on exhibition design and the other on editorial planning, conducted by the artists themselves and Chiara Capodici;


Slideshow of The Wrong Side of the Tracks accompanied by a live performance by nine students from the Electronic Music School of the “G.B. Martini” Conservatory in Bologna, as part of“Suon Domenica - Dodici ore di musica di ricerca”;

2023

8th edition of the Biennale Internationale des Rencontres Photographiques de Guyane, in the exhibition “Hors-champ(s)” curated by Nicola Lo Calzo, Cayenne, French Guiana;


13th edition of the Circulation(s) Festival, Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS;
“Offsite exhibition” of the festival at Hôtel Fontfreyde, Clermont-Ferrand;
“Exhibition outside the walls” in three Paris metro stations;

2022

11th Edition of the Francesco Fabbri Prize for Contemporary Arts – “Contemporary Photography” section, Treviso;


“Spazio Portici – Percorsi Creativi”, 4th Episode, in the “Generazione Italia” section curated by Kublaiklan, Turin;


“Possibile” – Group exhibition of Giovane Fotografia Italiana #09, curated by Ilaria Campioli and Daniele De Luigi, as part of the Festival of Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia;

2021

“Se non ora, ora” – Final group exhibition of the Biennial Course at Spazio Labo’, Bologna;