Untethered by Sissela Johansson at Millepiani Coworking, from September 11 to November 3, 2026

Untethered is a solo exhibition by the photographer Sissela Johansson, curated by Fabula Works, open at Millepiani on Via Nicolò Odero 13, in Garbatella, from September 11 to November 3, 2026. Admission is free, and the exhibition can be visited Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 19:00. On Saturday and Sunday the space is closed, as the official Millepiani page states. Garbatella is served by metro line B, Garbatella stop, and buses 23 and 769 run along Via Ostiense, at the foot of the neighborhood. Millepiani is less than 200 meters as the crow flies from Piazza Bartolomeo Romano. There are no tickets to buy. For information, the space answers at 06 888 17 621 and at the address listed on the official Millepiani site.

A portrait photography exhibition inside a neighborhood coworking space, open during office hours, free of charge: it's a format you rarely come across in Rome and, in our opinion, one that deserves to be taken seriously. Untethered brings to Garbatella a photographer of Danish origin who lives in Sweden and works on a difficult theme, the fragility of people when they stop playing a role. The visit combines easily with a walk through one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Rome.

Untethered in brief

Untethered is a photography exhibition by Sissela Johansson, open at Millepiani, in Garbatella, until November 3, 2026, with free admission, Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 19:00.

The dates

The exhibition opened on Friday, September 11 with an opening reception and a free aperitivo at 18:00. It remains open until Tuesday, November 3, 2026, the date given by the official Millepiani page. The Rome City tourism portal reports a longer closing, on December 22. Before going after the first days of November, it's best to ask the space for confirmation.

The hours

Millepiani is a coworking space, and the exhibition follows its hours: Monday to Friday, from 9:30 to 19:00. On Saturday and Sunday it's closed. It's an exhibition for a lunch break or the end of the workday, not for a weekend outing.

The price

Admission is free, as the official exhibition page states. It's one of the few international photography exhibitions in Rome that you can see without spending anything and without booking.

Who curates it

The exhibition is curated by Fabula Works, which presents the photographer's work. The space that hosts it, Millepiani, is a social promotion association of the third sector.

What you see in Untethered

Untethered brings together two groups of portrait photographs. The presentation text describes them as a space of emotional exposure: images that refuse polish and artifice and dwell on moments when people appear defenseless, suspended, introspective.

The figures in the water

The first series places figures in the water, suspended between weightlessness and stillness. The water, in these images, is both support and isolation: the body floats, loses its weight, separates from the world. It's the part of the exhibition that gives the title its meaning.

The intimate gestures

The second series captures intimate expressions and gestures, and reveals sincere and often ambiguous emotional states. Here the photography moves closer to faces, hands, the small movements that betray what people feel. Together, according to the curators, the two series create a tension between physical suspension and inner emotions.

Identity as balance

The presentation insists on one point: in Untethered, identity is not a definitive answer but a delicate balance in constant change. The photographs leave their subjects room to be complex and undefined, beyond the roles and appearances by which we usually recognize ourselves. The curators call it raw, intimate and quietly provocative.

The title

Untethered in English means unbound, without moorings, off the leash. The exhibition text closes with a question that explains its meaning: what remains when we free ourselves of the need to define ourselves. The title is the answer in one word.

Who Sissela Johansson is

Sissela Johansson is a photographer of Danish origin who lives and works in Sweden, presented by Fabula Works as an artist with a multicultural background and a life spent crossing different continents.

A fluid identity

According to the official presentation, the tension in her images reflects Johansson's own relationship with identity. People who have lived in different countries, the curators write, tend to think of identity as something fluid rather than fixed, shaped by places, encounters, memories and contradictions. Her photographs bring this experience onto the faces of others.

A direct practice

The text speaks of an expressive personality and a pronounced sensitivity, which shape a photographic practice that is both direct and attentive to the complexity of its subjects. There are no elaborate stagings: Johansson's photography looks for the moment when the person stops posing.

The first time at Millepiani

Untethered brings Johansson's work into a Roman neighborhood space, inside a coworking space used every day by professionals, associations and residents of Garbatella. It's a different audience from that of the galleries in the center, and perhaps better suited to photography that speaks of ordinary people in extraordinary moments.

Portrait as emotional exposure

Untethered belongs to a specific family of contemporary photography: the portrait that doesn't try to make a person beautiful or recognizable, but to catch them when they expose themselves. The curators' text uses precisely this word, exposure, and applies it to emotions more than to light.

Without polish

The images, the curators write, refuse polish and artifice. Don't expect the smooth perfection of fashion or advertising photography: here the skin, the gaze, the pose have the imperfections of life. It's a choice of language, and it should be looked at as such.

Physical suspension and inner suspension

The dialogue between the two series is the heart of the exhibition. In the water the body is physically suspended. In the close-ups it's emotionally suspended, between one state of mind and another. Moving from one series to the other helps you understand that the photographer is telling the same condition with two different tools.

What to take home

The final question of the presentation, what remains when we stop defining ourselves, is the kind that stays with you for a few days. It's the sign of a successful exhibition: few images, but one precise question.

Fabula Works, the curators

Fabula Works is the body that curates and presents Untethered at Millepiani. The official exhibition page, in Italian and in English, carries its signature, and the critical text is theirs.

A bilingual exhibition

The presentation is published in Italian and in English: a sign of the international vocation of the project and of the space, which over the years has hosted group exhibitions with artists from many countries. For a foreign visitor it's a concrete advantage.

The opening reception

The exhibition opened on Friday, September 11 at 18:00 with a free aperitivo and free admission: Millepiani's usual formula for its openings.

Millepiani, the venue

Millepiani is a coworking space and a social promotion association on Via Nicolò Odero 13, in Garbatella, in Municipio VIII. Besides shared workspaces, it hosts exhibitions, meetings and projects tied to the neighborhood.

A coworking space that exhibits

The Millepiani site describes a busy calendar: photography and graphic design exhibitions, projects on food and urban agriculture, mutual aid groups for young people, workshops, group readings, ethical fashion. The exhibitions fit inside the workspaces, and this explains the hours: you visit them when the coworking space is open.

A tradition of international exhibitions

As early as December 2019, for example, the space hosted About Future, an international group exhibition of photography and digital graphics curated by LoosenArt, with dozens of artists from around the world. Untethered continues this line: international contemporary photography inside a neighborhood venue.

A third sector space

Millepiani is registered as a social promotion association and third sector entity, and the site lists projects that go well beyond shared work: a food council for the city, free workshops on nutrition, agroforestry and sustainable mobility projects, group readings, mutual aid groups for young people. The exhibitions are part of this same commitment: bringing culture to a neighborhood venue, free of charge, for those who pass through every day. It's a context that gives Johansson's photography, devoted to people and their fragilities, a coherent audience.

Contacts

Millepiani answers at 06 888 17 621 and at the email address listed on the official site. For groups, schools or visits outside standard hours, it's the most direct route.

Garbatella, the neighborhood of the exhibition

Garbatella is the settlement founded on February 18, 1920, when King Victor Emmanuel III laid the first stone in Piazza Benedetto Brin. Today it's one of the best-loved areas of Rome, and Millepiani occupies a quiet corner of it, a few steps from Piazza Bartolomeo Romano.

The port that never was

The neighborhood was born around a project that was never carried out: a navigable canal to Ostia and a river port, imagined by the urban planners led by Paolo Orlando. The houses were to host the port workers. The port was never built, but the street names remain, dedicated to navigators and admirals.

The garden city

Garbatella was built in lots, with courtyards, vegetable gardens and shared washhouses, following the idea of the garden city. The architects Gustavo Giovannoni and Innocenzo Sabbatini designed the first houses in the style that was called barocchetto. Then came Costantini, Massimo Piacentini, Mario De Renzi and Felice Nori. From 1927 the Alberghi went up, large buildings called Rosso, Bianco, Giallo and Beige.

The name

Before being called Garbatella, the neighborhood nearly ended up being called Concordia or Remuria. On the origin of the name, the most widespread version speaks of a kind innkeeper, the garbata ostella. A study published in 2019 in the volume Garbatella 100 identified her as Clementina Eusebi, who ran the osteria between 1835 and 1850, the daughter of Maddalena Garbata.

How to get to Millepiani

Millepiani, at Via Nicolò Odero 13, is reached by metro line B to the Garbatella stop and then on foot toward the interior of the neighborhood, or by buses 23 and 769, which run along Via Ostiense.

By metro

From Termini you take line B toward Laurentina and get off at Garbatella. From the station you walk up toward the historic neighborhood. Piazza Bartolomeo Romano, less than 200 meters from Millepiani, is a good landmark.

By bus

Via Ostiense, at the foot of Garbatella, is served by lines 23 and 769, which connect it to Ostiense station and Piramide. For the exact route to Via Odero, it's best to use the ATAC planner.

By train

Roma Ostiense station, connected to metro line B at Piramide, is a short distance from the neighborhood: convenient for those arriving on regional trains or from Fiumicino airport.

By car

Historic Garbatella has narrow streets and scarce parking. During the exhibition's office hours, the metro is much more convenient.

How to visit Untethered

Untethered can be visited in half an hour, inside the spaces of a coworking space: it's an exhibition to fit into a day in Garbatella or a break from work.

Respect those who work

The photographs are displayed in a place where other people are working. Enter discreetly, lower your voice, don't make phone calls in front of the works. It's also the best condition for the images, which call for silence and attention.

Look at the faces

With the series of intimate gestures, get close: the meaning of these photographs is in the details, in a glance that slips away, in a hand that closes. With the water series, on the other hand, take a step back and let the whole of the suspended body read as a form.

With children

The portrait photographs in the water may intrigue even the youngest, but the work setting and the intimate tone of the exhibition make it better suited to adults and teenagers.

Accessibility

For information on access to the spaces for people with mobility disabilities, it's best to contact Millepiani before the visit, at the number given on the official site.

A curiosity about Untethered by Sissela Johansson at Millepiani Coworking, from September 11 to November 3, 2026

The best curiosity concerns the neighborhood that hosts the exhibition, and its relationship with water. Garbatella was born for a port that was never built. After the First World War the urban planners led by Paolo Orlando imagined a navigable canal parallel to the Tiber, from Rome to the sea at Ostia, with a commercial port in the area of today's Via del Porto Fluviale. The houses of Garbatella were meant to host the port workers. The port never came, but the neighborhood did, and of the sailors who never were, the street names remain, almost all dedicated to navigators, admirals and figures of the maritime world.

An exhibition that opens with figures suspended in water, in a neighborhood born for a port that was never built, has something poetic about it. The bodies photographed by Sissela Johansson float free, unbound, untethered. The streets of Garbatella carry the names of a sea that never came this far. Strolling after the visit, read the street names: you'll notice you're walking in a port city without a port.

Something nobody tells you about Untethered by Sissela Johansson at Millepiani Coworking, from September 11 to November 3, 2026

What is rarely said about exhibitions hosted in coworking spaces and association venues is that they are often the best way to see international contemporary photography in Rome. The big institutions work with established names and long lead times. Neighborhood spaces can afford to present lesser-known artists, to host independent curators, to open with a free aperitivo and leave admission free for weeks. Millepiani has been doing it for years, as group exhibitions like About Future in 2019 show.

The second thing nobody says concerns the dates. The official Millepiani page gives the closing as November 3, 2026, while the Rome City tourism portal reports December 22. The exhibition may be extended, but the source of the space that hosts it is the one that counts. Plan to go by November 3, and if you come later, call first. The third is practical: the exhibition is closed on exactly the days when most people stroll through Garbatella, Saturday and Sunday. Anyone who wants to see it has to think of it as a weekday stop, perhaps at lunchtime or on the way out of work.

My advice for visiting Untethered by Sissela Johansson at Millepiani Coworking, from September 11 to November 3, 2026

My advice is to go on a late weekday afternoon, around 17:30, and to build a walk through historic Garbatella around the exhibition. Get off the metro line B at Garbatella, walk up toward Piazza Bartolomeo Romano, go into Millepiani, look at the photographs calmly before the 19:00 closing. Then step out and take the road of the lots, among courtyards, vegetable gardens and stairways, all the way to the Fontana della Carlotta and the Scala degli Innamorati, in Piazza Ricoldo da Montecroce.

Close the day in a trattoria in the neighborhood: Garbatella has a tradition of Roman osterie frequented mostly by residents, with lower prices than the center. If you come from outside Rome and have little time, combine the visit with the Centrale Montemartini or the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, which are a short distance away. And don't forget the date: the closing given by Millepiani is November 3, a Tuesday.

Another well-known fact, yet one rarely mentioned

It's well known that Garbatella is one of the most photographed and filmed neighborhoods in Rome. Nanni Moretti shot scenes of Dear Diary and Bianca there. Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote about it in A Violent Life. The series I Cesaroni made it familiar to millions of viewers. It's mentioned less often that the neighborhood was also an architecture laboratory: in 1929, on the occasion of the 12th International Housing Congress, a lot of model houses was built, Lot 24, to show the foreign delegates the solutions of Roman public housing.

A neighborhood born to be shown, photographed, visited by curious foreigners: in the end Garbatella has always been an open-air gallery. That today a Danish photographer who came from Sweden exhibits her portraits here is the continuation of that vocation. The difference is that back then they showed the houses, and today they show the people. Untethered, with its defenseless, suspended figures, is the opposite of the orderly facades of the barocchetto, but both tell how people live, and how they could live.

The right photo to take at Untethered by Sissela Johansson at Millepiani Coworking, from September 11 to November 3, 2026

Inside Millepiani the right photo is not one of the works: photographing photographs rarely does justice to the author's work, and in a coworking space there's also respect for those who work. If you want a memento, ask the staff if photography is allowed and choose a framing that shows the relationship between the images and the space: Johansson's photographs hanging in a workplace, among desks and people, tell the nature of the exhibition well.

Outside, the right photo is Garbatella in the light of late afternoon. Look for an inner courtyard of the lots, with the low houses of the barocchetto, the vegetable gardens and the laundry hung out to dry. Or the Scala degli Innamorati with the Fontana della Carlotta. They are images of a neighborhood that still lives as a community, and after an exhibition devoted to faces and intimate gestures it will come naturally to look for people: an old man sitting in front of a door, two kids on a staircase. Always ask permission before photographing someone up close: it's the simplest lesson Untethered teaches.

Some important events that happened here in history

The history of Garbatella begins on February 18, 1920, when King Victor Emmanuel III lays the first stone in Piazza Benedetto Brin, with Mayor Adolfo Apolloni, the Ente autonomo per lo sviluppo marittimo e industriale and the Istituto delle Case popolari. The project for the river port and the canal to Ostia, wanted by the planners of Paolo Orlando, will never be carried out. The neighborhood grows in lots, following the idea of the garden city, with the first houses by Gustavo Giovannoni and Innocenzo Sabbatini. From 1927 the Alberghi go up, near Piazza Eugenio Biffi. In 1929 Lot 24 is built as an exhibition for the 12th International Housing Congress.

People displaced by the demolitions in the center also arrive in the neighborhood, from the Spina di Borgo and the area of Via dei Fori Imperiali. During the war the neighborhood is a red zone and takes part in the Resistance. On December 3, 1978 Pope John Paul II visits the parish of San Francesco Saverio, where he had been a confessor in 1946. Cinema and literature make it a symbol: Pasolini, Moretti, the television of the Cesaroni. With Roma Tre University the neighborhood also becomes a university district, and in February the Buon Compleanno Garbatella is celebrated every year. Association spaces like Millepiani fit into this history, and in 2026 they bring international photography to the neighborhood.

Who has passed through Untethered by Sissela Johansson at Millepiani Coworking, from September 11 to November 3, 2026

Through Garbatella passed, in 1920, King Victor Emmanuel III, for the laying of the first stone. The architects who designed the neighborhood passed through, from Gustavo Giovannoni and Innocenzo Sabbatini to Massimo Piacentini, Mario De Renzi and Felice Nori. In 1929 the delegates of the International Housing Congress passed through. In 1946 the young Karol Wojtyła was a confessor there, and he returned as pope on December 3, 1978.

The writers and directors who told its story passed through, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Nanni Moretti, and figures of the neighborhood like Iole Zedde and Alvaro Amici. The students of Roma Tre passed through, the groups that animate association life, the Sgarbatelle with their mutual aid. Through Millepiani over the years have passed artists from many countries, like those of the group exhibition About Future in 2019, and professionals, associations, young people from the mutual aid groups. This autumn Fabula Works and Sissela Johansson pass through, with portraits of people suspended in water and in their own thoughts. And anyone who walks in passes through, even for just half an hour, to look at a photograph that doesn't ask you to be anybody.

What to see around Millepiani

Around Garbatella are concentrated some of the most interesting places in the southern quadrant of Rome, among archaeology, industrial archaeology and urban art.

San Paolo fuori le mura

The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls is a short distance away, heading down toward Via Ostiense. Not far off are also the Catacombs of Commodilla.

Ostiense and the Centrale Montemartini

At the foot of the neighborhood stretches industrial Ostiense: the Centrale Montemartini displays ancient sculptures among the machines of a power plant, and along the streets you come across the street art of Ostiense.

The gardens and the Pyramid

In the neighborhood are the urban gardens of Garbatella, in keeping with the community spirit of Millepiani. Toward the center, the Pyramid of Cestius and Porta San Paolo close out an itinerary to do on foot.

Where to eat in Garbatella

Garbatella has a tradition of neighborhood trattorias, Roman osterie and pizzerias frequented mostly by residents, with prices generally lower than the center.

Lunch break

With the exhibition open during office hours, lunch in a neighborhood trattoria before or after the visit is the most natural combination.

Toward Ostiense

Heading down toward Via Ostiense you find newer places, beer houses and restaurants frequented by Roma Tre students. In the former Air Terminal of Ostiense station, since 2012, there is the large Rome location of Eataly.

Garbatella between September and November

Untethered takes up the Roman autumn, from mid-September to early November: the best season for walking in Garbatella, with days still long at the start and the low, warm light of October.

A neighborhood to walk

Garbatella is discovered on foot. The lots with their inner courtyards, the vegetable gardens, the shared washhouses, the staircases that connect one street to another are made for a slow pace. A visit to the exhibition takes little time. The neighborhood around it deserves at least an hour.

Other events in the area

In autumn the neighborhood is crossed by walks, festivals and cultural events, like the guided walks and the film series between Garbatella and Ostiense such as L'Aperossa 2026. Check the cultural calendar of Municipio VIII: with a bit of luck your visit to Millepiani may coincide with another occasion.

The community

Garbatella is a neighborhood with a strong association life, from the Sgarbatelle with their mutual aid to the Buon Compleanno Garbatella festival in February. A space like Millepiani, with its projects on food, on young people, on culture, is part of this network. Visiting the exhibition also means getting to know a piece of this community.

Frequently asked questions about Untethered by Sissela Johansson

Until when is the Untethered exhibition open in Rome?

The Untethered exhibition by Sissela Johansson is open at Millepiani, on Via Nicolò Odero 13 in Garbatella, from September 11 to November 3, 2026, according to the space's official page. The Rome City tourism portal gives December 22. After November 3 it's best to ask for confirmation.

How much does it cost to see Untethered?

The Untethered exhibition at Millepiani has free admission, as the official page states. No tickets or reservations are needed. For groups or special visits you can contact the space at 06 888 17 621.

What are the hours of the Untethered exhibition?

Untethered can be visited Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 19:00, during the hours of the Millepiani coworking space. On Saturday and Sunday the space is closed, so the exhibition cannot be visited on the weekend.

Who is Sissela Johansson?

Sissela Johansson is a photographer of Danish origin who lives in Sweden, with a multicultural background and a life spent on different continents. In her portraits she looks for moments when people appear defenseless and introspective. Untethered is curated by Fabula Works.

How do you get to Millepiani in Garbatella?

Millepiani, at Via Nicolò Odero 13, is reached by metro line B to the Garbatella stop and then on foot, or by buses 23 and 769 on Via Ostiense. It's less than 200 meters as the crow flies from Piazza Bartolomeo Romano.

What do you see in the Untethered exhibition?

In the Untethered exhibition you see two series of portrait photographs by Sissela Johansson: figures suspended in water, between weightlessness and stillness, and close-ups of expressions and intimate gestures that reveal sincere and ambiguous emotional states.

Final advice on Untethered by Sissela Johansson

It's best to go on a weekday afternoon, by November 3, and make the exhibition the starting point for a walk through the Garbatella of the lots and courtyards. In our opinion half an hour of silent photographs and an hour of neighborhood give back a Rome that tourists rarely see. For a tailored experience between Garbatella and Ostiense, the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro organizes private, corporate and VIP tours and experiences.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/VIP Tours and Experiences.

Planning a trip to Rome? The English-language guides for visiting the city are on ItalyPlanner.com.