The MASI presents a pop-up exhibition centered around Divided We Stand, a project brought to life in 2019 by Swiss photographer duo Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer to document the deep disintegration of American society.

Following the results of the 2016 presidential elections in the US, which have revealed a divided country between conservative and progressive forces, the rural and the urban, the red centre of the nation and the blue coasts; the couple decided to embark on a documentary photography trip across the United States to probe the underlying sources of these sharp contrasts, photographing and interviewing people from all layers of society across the country.

Divided We Stand is the result of this fifteen-thousand-mile road trip across the United States, which commenced in April 2019. Along the way, traveling through 40 of the 50 federal states, Braschler/Fischer met, interviewed and photographed 82 American citizens with very diverse views of life, politics and their country, including people of all ages, ethnic groups and professional backgrounds.

The exhibition presents a selection of these intense, and sometimes surprising, portraits projected in MASI’s exhibition spaces, along with a series of interviews that put Braschler/Fischer’s work into context and allow for a better understanding of the opinions of some of the most significant characters they have encountered during their road trip.

Divided We Stand shows the real face of contemporary America, marked in recent years by complex political and social changes. Braschler/Fischer’s photographs offer a picture of a nation at a crossroads, whose future will be very different depending on the outcome of the imminent presidential elections.