At the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco at INNOVIT (Italian Innovation and Culture Hub), the photographic exhibition WEST by Francesco Jodice will be on view from September 25 to November 30, 2025. The exhibition features 18 photographs presented for the first time in the United States.

The project invites reflection on the rise and fall of the last great Western empire, spanning from the Gold Rush in 1848 to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Through journeys across the U.S.A, and neighboring areas of Mexico, Jodice explores territories and archaeological ruins, reinterpreting history through myths, utopias, mirages, and failures.

The photographs blend past, present, and future, evoking the economy, territory, politics, and culture of the “American century” as a synecdoche of the West, proposing an alternative story of power and global culture. WEST is realized with the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture and is organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, promoted by the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco, the MUNAF – National Museum of Photography in Cinisello Balsamo, and INNOVIT.