Edith Tudor Hart. Tra fotografia e spionaggio

Exhibition dedicated to photographer and agent Edith Tudor Hart, presented for the first time in Italy, curated by ONO arte, under the patronage of FAF

  • Date:

    24 OCTOBER 2026
    -
    28 FEBRUARY 2027
     from 10:00 to 19:00

  • Event location: Palazzo Pepoli – Museo della Città di Bologna, Via Castiglione 10, Bologna

For the first time in Italy, Ergo Expo presents a major retrospective dedicated to Anglo-Austrian photographer Edith Tudor Hart (1908 Vienna – 1973 Brighton). Curated by ONO arte in collaboration with the FOTOHOF archive in Salzburg, now home to the entire Tudor Hart archive, the exhibition — hosted at Palazzo Pepoli – Museo della Città di Bologna from 24 October 2026 to 28 February 2027 — is not only an opportunity to rediscover one of the most brilliant figures in early 20th-century social photography, restoring the recognition within the world of fine-art photography that eluded her during her lifetime, but also a chance to explore the secrets of her second life as an agent for the Soviet Union.

Also trained at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Tudor Hart documented the social and political transformations of her time between the 1930s and 1950s: poverty and inequality, working-class life, women's rights, childhood and political movements, from interwar Vienna to Britain. Alongside her work as a photographer, she led a second, clandestine life as an agent linked to Soviet intelligence: declassified British documents have also revealed her role in the Cambridge Five affair, one of the most notorious espionage networks of the twentieth century.

The exhibition brings together over 100 photographs, arranged in five thematic sections, alongside magazines, personal documents, private papers and material from the British secret services: a journey that rediscovers the work and story of the "agent with a camera," long left on the margins of photographic history.

Opening hours:
Monday: 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday – Sunday: 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

The exhibition is produced in collaboration with Fondazione Bologna Welcome, the Culture Department of the Municipality of Bologna, and Fondazione Carisbo, with the support of Card Cultura, BCC Felsinea, and Gattinoni Travel Store. Under the patronage of the Municipality of Bologna, FAF – International Research Centre, and Forum austriaco di Cultura di Milano.