The Crossing Ceremony is a single-channel video installation that binds found footage of the Equator line-crossing rituals – both vintage and contemporary – with evocative imagery of ”moving stars.” The work invites viewers to embark on a voyage alongside King Neptune, the revered guardian of the oceans, as he prepares for the crossing of the Equator Line. As the narrative shifts into an introspective second act, it metaphorically depicts the challenges of the journey and the profound symbolism of traversing an invisible threshold, forever intertwined with the shifting patterns of the night sky.
Rosa Lacavalla (b. 1993) is an Italian photographer and visual artist based in Bologna. She holds a BA in Graphic Arts and an MA in Photography from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, further enriching her practice through studies at Coventry University (UK) and an internship with the collective Cesura. Her work has been exhibited in solo and collective shows internationally and featured in print and online publications. A 2024 FUTURES nominee via Der Greif, a finalist for the 2025 Luigi Ghirri Award, and a former artist-in-residence at Gate 27 in Turkey, she continues to expand her research by integrating photography with other media.
Lacavalla’s practice creates a space where diverse narratives intertwine through a process of symbolic mending. Her research weaves together past and present, exploring the friction between the visible and the invisible, the heard and the unheard. By bridging personal memory with universal phenomena – from the intimacy of childhood songs to the silent movements of the stars or echoes carried on the wind – she invites the audience to listen closely to the whispers of a shared human experience.