Fotografia, Rome's international contemporary photography festival, is showcasing images at venues throughout the city.

The theme of this fourth Fotografia is "Oriented"...interpreted both as geographical location and a shift in perspective. There are many remarkable and thought-provoking images. I have singled out these:

For a displacement of contexts, Israeli photographer Adi Nes's "Untitled", a new take on an Old Master ...

And this from Shao Yinong and Mu Chen's haunting, un-peopled series of works, "The Assembly Hall" .

The catalogue explains: "As a theatre where political events took place, The Assembly Hall was the meeting place of countless events of passion, zeal, lamentation and meaning, which still reflect China's contemporary history, politics and society. The images we see in The Assembly Hall are of an historic stage devoid of noise..." .

The photographers, based at Pechino in Italy, travelled through China to gather the images: some of the halls remain pristine, with benches intact, others have been left in ruins.

I was interested in the way these large works are weighted by their silence, becoming archaeological spaces in which the utter noiselessness urges a response, in the way that certain sites in Rome - Colosseum, Agora, Forum, Theatre - invoke us to recreate their ancient din.

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