Eleonora Agostini｜“More Ideal, More Clean: On Constructed Bonds”｜RPS Artist Residency 2026

07/25/2026

Reminders Photography Stronghold Tokyo is currently taking a temporary pause from public exhibitions and events. However, behind the scenes, we continue to support artists’ practices and research through residency programs, mentorship, and other forms of non-public engagement.

We are pleased to welcome Eleonora Agostini, an Italian artist based in London, as an RPS resident artist.
Eleonora Agostini received her MA from the Royal College of Art in London in 2018. Working primarily with photography, while also incorporating performance, moving image, and text, her practice explores how identity is constructed and performed within social and cultural frameworks. Her work pays close attention to the gaze not simply as a means of observation, but as a force that actively produces and shapes what it sees.

In 2025, Agostini received the First PhotoBook Award at the Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards for her photobook “A Study on Waitressing,” published by Witty Books. Taking the figure of the waitress as a point of departure, the work examines labor, gender, social expectations, and the layered relationship between public behavior and the private self.

Her residency at Reminders Photography Stronghold has come about through an introduction by the publisher Witty Books. From September 10 to October 8, 2026, Agostini will spend approximately one month at RPS, continuing her research project “More Ideal, More Clean: On Constructed Bonds” in Japan, with the support of the Strategia Fotografia program of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Through field research in Japan, the project investigates the boundaries between public and private identity, authenticity, and socially constructed relationships. Combining photography, moving image, text, and performance, the research considers how cultural norms shape intimacy, belonging, and the performance of social roles in contemporary life.

During her residency, RPS will support Agostini’s research through dialogue, guidance, and mentorship with RPS curator Yumi Goto. Through this process, we hope to help her research in Japan develop with greater depth and sensitivity, moving beyond an external gaze and engaging more meaningfully with the contexts, relationships, and communities she encounters here.

We hope this residency will become a fruitful period for her ongoing project, and also create a new opportunity for dialogue within the RPS community.

About | Eleonora Agostini

Eleonora Agostini is an Italian artist based in London, where she received her MA from the Royal College of Art in 2018.
Agostini works mainly with photography, while also incorporating performance, moving image and text within her work. Her practice looks at how identity is constructed and performed within social and cultural frameworks, and is interested in the gaze as a force that produces what it observes.
Her work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions at galleries and museums including the Quadriennale di Roma, FOAM Amsterdam, Deutsche Börse Foundation, the Venice Biennale of Architecture, ICC Stockholm, MAR Ravenna, the National Museum of Gdańsk, Almanac Turin, L21 Gallery, South London Gallery, Borough Road Gallery, and Leeds Art Gallery. Her work has also been presented at festivals including Fotofestiwal Łódź, Peckham 24, Fotografia Europea, Getxophoto, FORMAT, and Circulation(s).
In 2025, Agostini won the Aperture First Book Award at Paris Photo with her photobook A Study on Waitressing. The same year, she was longlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. In 2024, she was selected for FOAM Talent and shortlisted for the Paul Huf Award. She is the recipient of the Nuove Traiettorie 2023 award, supported by the Italian Cultural Institute in Stockholm and Giovane Fotografia Italiana. She was selected as a Futures Photography Talent by CAMERA Torino in 2021 and was a Bloomberg New Contemporaries artist in 2019.
Her practice has been supported by Arts Council England (2023) and the Italian Council (2024 and 2025). Her work is held in public and private collections including the UK Government Art Collection, the Donata Pizzi Collection (Rome), the Italian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, and FOAM Amsterdam.

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