REGGIO EMILIA
From 6th MAY to 10th JULY
FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2016
11th edition
THE VIA EMILIA. Roads, journeys, borders
Inauguration:
Friday 6th May 2016, 6.00 p.m.
Reggio Emilia, Chiostri di San Pietro
The main cultural institutionsandexhibition venuesof the citywill host a rich programme ofexhibitions, conferences, performances, educational initiatives andother events dedicated entirely to the art form that more than others communicates and interprets the complexityof contemporary society.
Reggio Emilia, March 2016
From 6th May to 10th July 2016, Reggio Emiliawill hostthe11th editionofFOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA, the festival promotedand organised by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, dedicated entirely to the art form that more than others communicatesand interpretsthe complexityof contemporary society.
Exhibitions, conferences, performances, educationalinitiatives andother events,hosted in the main cultural institutionsandexhibition venuesof the city,will be the ingredientsofa rich programmeofeventsfeaturingprotagonists of photography, culture,andknowledge tostimulate an encounterbetween different expressionsof creativityandthought.
Curated byan advisory committee composedof Diane Dufour (director of Le Bal, Paris), Elio Grazioli (University of Bergamo), andWalter Guadagnini (Accademia delle Belle Arti of Bologna), FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2016 revolves around the themeTheVia Emilia. Roads, journeys, borders.
This year the reflection focuses on the theme of roads, starting from the major Roman road that runs “from the river to the sea” andextending to the byways of the world,the places of transit andborders in today’s society.
At a distance of thirty years, the theme revisitsExplorationsalong the Via Emilia (1986),the collective project on the landscape curated byLuigi Ghirriwitha group ofphotographersandwriters who recounted the “face ofa real country”, marking a significant pageincontemporaryphotography.
“TheVia Emilia. Roads, journeys, bordersdoes not intend solely to update theimagesof thirty years ago,” affirm the curators, “but especially to underscore how both the world and the ways of representing it have changed during the last three decades, and in particular how change has affected the theory and practice of photography, namely the languagethrough which all those who use a photographic tool express themselves today – the‘roads’are thus simultaneously those of photography, itsborders, frontiers, and transit points.”
At theChiostri di San Pietro, oneof the mainhubsofFOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA, theexhibition1986. Explorationsalong the Via Emilia, curated by Laura Gasparini, will presenta selectionofworks – all shown on that historic occasion – by artistsincludingOlivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico, Vincenzo Castella, Giovanni Chiaramonte, Vittore Fossati, Luigi Ghirri, Guido Guidi, Mimmo Jodice, Klaus Kinold, Claude Nori, Cuchi White, Manfred Willman,andthe video by Nino Criscenti,with the aim to recreate thecultural climateofone of themost lucid and exciting experiencesin the history ofItalian photography.
In addition, original materialsof the epoch, includingthe catalogue, mock-ups, and contact sheets, will illustrate the extensive research on the territorythat began in 1984 and concluded withthe collective exhibition of 1986.
Thefestivalwill be completedwiththe section2016. New explorations, for whichFOTOGRAFIA EUROPEAhas commissioned sevencontemporary artiststo conduct “new explorations” of the Via Emilia, bearing witness to the continuity of a commitment. This surprising journey, between realityand imagination, between documentationand invention, will make the 2016 editionof the festival truly unique. PhotographersAlain Bublex, Stefano Graziani, Antonio Rovaldi, Sebastian Stumpf, Davide Tranchina, Paolo Ventura, and Lorenzo Vitturiare amongthe major playersof the currentnational and international photographyscene, andtheir imageswill no doubt be the most eagerly anticipated new elementofFOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2016.
From the Via Emilia,the theme extends towardstheroadsof theworld. TheChiostri di San Pietro will also hostthe exhibitionExile, presentingtheworkof 24 photographersfrom the Magnum agency. The images on display weretaken by leading figures of photojournalism, includingWerner Bischof, Robert Capa, Stuart Franklin, Paolo Pellegrin, Abbas, Chris Steele-Perkins, Philip Jones Griffiths, and Leonard Freed, just to name a few, in which the themeof exile is viewed as a one-way road from which there is no return, a conditionof non-belonging, a place alien to one’s own history and culture. Theexhibitionbegins with history and arrives at the tragic pagesof current events.
In the wake of the successof the previous editions, the project Speciale Diciottoventicinque will return once againtotheChiostri di San Pietro. Under the guidance of three photography and art professionals,such as Giorgio Barrera, Pietro Iori,and Diego Zuelli, 60 young people between 18 and 25 will havethe possibility to learn how to develop an exhibition project, from drafting the concept to the finalexhibition. This year, for the first time, theyoung artists will also have the opportunity to explore the world of videos.
From itsbeginnings, photography has been closely tied to the explorationandstudy of the territory. The firstphotography books contributed to creating and reinforcing an imaginary geography of places, modelling our perceptionof spaceand time. This fascinating theme is the focus of theexhibitionofphotography bookscurated by Ilaria Campioli, at theChiostri di San Pietro. The show will present books that employ the same narrativeand visual structure common to theexplorationsof the19thand20thcenturies, to reflect on the complex relationships between discovery, journey, and conquest.
For the first time in Italy, Palazzo Magnani will showmore than 150 imagesand 80 journalsto pay homage to Walker Evans (1903-1975), one of the great photographersof the20th century, who shot some of his most famous images along theroadsof theUnited States.
TheAmerican photographerwill be celebrated withtwo distinct exhibitions. Thefirst, WALKER EVANS. Anonymous, curated by David Campany, Jean-Paul Deridder and Sam Stourdzé (catalogue by Steidl),will present thephoto-editing work developed by Evans in numerous American magazines starting from 1929. Differently from manyphotographers, Walker Evans did not work for magazinesexclusively as aphotographer; often it was he himself who chose the theme, wrote the texts, selected the photographs,andcreated the page layout. Whilethe mass media lingeredon the cult of celebrityand consumerism, Evans photographed anonymous citizens and their everyday life, creating direct andhead-onimages of the conditionsof thecountry, withan austereand detachedstyle free from any form of romantic idealism. His intenseimages, mostly in black and white, ordained Evans as the pioneer of documentary photographyandbecame symbolsof American culturein the yearsof the New Deal.
The second exhibition, WALKER EVANS. Italia, curated by Laura Gasparini (catalogue by Silvana editoriale), has been expressly produced forFOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2016.On display will be 50 of Evans’ most famous photographsfrom public and private Italian collections, worksthat inspired the poetic language of manyof thephotographersinvolved inExplorationsalong the Via Emilia, including Ghirri, Basilico, Guidi, and Barbieri. As evidence of this inspiration, the exhibition will also include a number of works by these Italian artists,stemming from the reflection on the lesson of the great American master, along with publicationsfrom the 1930s and ‘40s that attest to the presence of Walker Evans in the historyof Italian cinema andphotography in the post-war era.
TheitineraryofFOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2016will continue in other symbolic sitesof Reggio Emilia.
Spazio Gerra will host theexhibitionDisco Emilia, stemming from a projectinvolving an in-depth historical-social investigation of the twenty-year period between the early '70sandthe late '80s, in whichthe region witnessed the riseofa true entertainment district,withmore than 35 dance clubs operating within a 100 km range. It was an epic time with a wild mix ofmusic, images, fashion, technology,andperformance, giving rise to exponential growth and to its contradictionsthatstill reverberate today. This social and cultural phenomenon is documented by theimagesofGabriele Basilico,who in 1978 portrayed its first phase withhis seriesDancing in Emilia, and then brought to the present day withthephotographsofAndrea Amadasi, Hyena,and Arianna Lerussi.
Palazzo da Mosto–one of the venues most appreciated last year for the beauty of the building itself and its exhibition spaces–owned by the Fondazione Manodori, will host the collective exhibitionFromthe Via Emilia to the World, curated by the Festival advisory committee, presentingtheworkofZiad Antar, Paola De Pietri, Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev, Kent Klich, Bettina Lockemann, Maanantai Collective, Michael Najjar, Paolo Pellegrin, Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber.
It is essentially nine soloexhibitionsbyartistsfrom different European countries (Sweden, Germany, Finland, Italy) who use various media, fromphotography to videoinstallations, to investigatethe themes of journeys and borders, in both their social and individual aspects. Allwell-known on the international art scene, a number of these artists will be exhibiting for the first time in Italy, confirming the proactive nature of thefestival.
In the wake of theextraordinary experienceof Joan Fontcuberta in last year’s edition, Palazzo dei Museiwill open its rooms toPaolo Gioli,one of the great mastersof Italianand international photography. In theexhibitionNature attraverso, Paolo Gioli exploredthespacesandthecollectionsof the Musei Civici of Reggio Emilia, creating a seriesofnew works, made using the photofinish technique. Once again an original project, once again a unique event in the panorama of national festivals.
Palazzo dei Museiwill also host a solo exhibitionof work byFabio Boni, whowill celebratethe 150th anniversary of the Red Cross with portraits of its volunteers.
From the very first edition,FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEAhasalways been a stage where work by the new generations of artists could be presented. TheChiostri di San Domenico, for example, will hostexhibitions by the five European artists selected by the advisory committee from among more than 250 projectssubmitted to the Public call.
These projects range from the research ofFilippo Minelli, whose projectPadania Classic documents the changes of the contemporary architectural landscape of the Po Valley from the ’80s to the present, intentionally omitting natural landscapes and the historical heritage, to the work of the duo Luca Santese and Pasquale Bove,whose project Italy&Italywill organically structure the iconographyof theNineties, focussing on the everyday and social life of Rimini and its environs. Then there are the investigations carried out by Françoise Beauguion, In the country nowhere – Migrations to Europe, which analyses the theme of migration in Europe; Ikuru Kuwajima, Trail, which documents his trip by car in the Pamir mountains of Tagikistan along the Afghan border; andCyrus Mahboubian and Sophie Nicole Culière,Wanderlust, in which theroad is the trace for telling about the passage of humankind through the world.
Also in this area, Palazzo Casotti will hostSideways, anexhibition dedicated to emerging photographers under 35, curated by Daniele De Luigi in collaborationwith GAI, theAssociation for the Circuit of Young Italian Artists.
At the Galleria Parmeggiani, two events dedicated to photographers,who were born and workin the region,will attest to the Festival’s desire to maintain strong ties with its roots and a strong relationship with the cultural fabric that animates it.
Thefirst isThe Journey through Time ofiPhonegraphy by Giuliano Ferrari, who used the iPhone camera to retrace and update thedestinationsof the Grand Tour, where wealthy young men of the European aristocracy, starting in the 17th century, would travel to Italyto study the antiquities, Renaissance painting and the landscape. The second is Columnae Herculis:border architectures and militarised urban planning strategies, aprojectbySaverio Cantoni, curated by Giovanna Calvenzi, whichinvestigates the architecturaland urbanistic strategies in the construction and maintenance of the southern border of the demilitarised zonebetween North and South Korea.
On the occasionofFOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2016,the Maramotti Collection has organised twoexhibitions. Claudia Losi’s projectHow do I imagine to being there? starts from a travel chronicle, an actual exploration of the St. Kilda islandsin 2012, then shifts to the constructionof newmental mapsand artefactsthat constitute mnemonic sedimentations of thelandscape. So near, so farbyPaolo Simonazzi will provide an original view on our territory, seen as a crossroads of semantic, cultural, linguistic, and visual communications through a series of shots that cover the last twenty years of his work.
FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA2016opens a new chapterand presents numerous new initiatives in conjunctionwiththeEmilia-Romagna Region, based on the commonobjectivetodevelop synergiesand collaborationswithother entitiesof the territory. This year, the festival with its themeTheVia Emilia. Roads, journeys, bordersthus establishes cooperative relationshipswithother prestigious organisations within theregional culturalsystem, such as CSAC –StudyCentre andCommunication Archiveof the Universityof Parma, theMAST Foundation(Arts, Experience and Technology) of Bologna,and Linea di Confine per laFotografia Contemporaneaof Rubiera, whichwill present exhibitionsandevents connected to the festival.
The CSAC – Study Centre and Communication Archiveof the Universityof Parma will proposetheresult of an investigation in the archivesof its Photography Section.The exhibitionExplorationsof the Archive:The Via Emilia, photographsof the Via Emiliawill displayhistorical nuclei ofprints from its collections, by Bruno Stefani and by importantphotography studios such as StudioVillani in Bologna andStudio Vasari in Rome, alongsidethe workof the protagonistsofthe newphotographyof the last quarter of the 20th century. Interwoven with all this are news photos, photographsof sport, social rituals, and shotsof everyday life. The intentionis to offer a reflection on the views of thislandscapewiththe aimto provide a backdrop to the projectofExplorationsof the Via Emilia, 1986. The venue, a former hay barn, will also offer a repeat showing of theexhibitionof the Festival of Architecture 2007-08 dedicated to thepublic landscapeentitledHabitare la via Emilia. Presenze e luoghi di rifondazione insediativa (Inhabiting the Via Emilia: Presences and places of settlement re-establishment), the result of a studythat employsa precise topographic-photographic survey to reflect onthe structuresand componentsof thedevelopmentof theRoman roadas an instrument of continuous regenerationof human settlement in the Emilia region.
The MAST Foundation (Arts, Experience and Technology) of Bologna will hosttheexhibitionCeramica, Latte, Macchine e Logistica. Fotografie dell’Emilia Romagna al lavoro (Ceramics, Milk, Machinery and Logistics: Photographs of Emilia-Romagna at work) curated by Urs Stahel. Throughthephotographsofartistssuch asOlivo Barbieri, Tim Davis, William Guerrieri, Guido Guidi, Paola de Pietri, Franco Vaccari, Walter Niedermayr andothers, the exhibition will document thedevelopment of the Emilia-Romagna region over the last several decades. Pairsofcontrasting imageswill convey how the old industries have disappeared, replaced by new high-tech production systems,andhow the traditional landscapeofa region with an ancient flavouris being replaced by new areasof the advanced tertiary sector.
At the Ospitale in Rubiera (RE), Linea di Confine per laFotografia Contemporaneawill present an exhibition curated byAntonello Frongia entitledPer strada (On the road), which will propose more than 60 photographs from the early ‘70s to 2007, created byGuido Guidialong the Via Emiliaandthesecondaryroads, also includingthe series on the Teatro Bonci of Cesena created in 1984 with Luigi Ghirri, unpublished worksofExplorationsalong the Via Emilia,andthe seriesSS9. The programme also includes an exhibition of work produced by the participants in the thematic workshops conducted along the Via Emiliaby Guido Guidi (Per strada), Sabrina Ragucci (Contemporaneamente immagini e parole),and Marco Signorini (Sguardi, grafemi, codici), curated byWilliam Guerrieri.
For the 11thedition,FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2016will also be enhanced by theCircuito Off, a programme of more than 300 exhibitionsandevents independently organised and managed by galleries, associations, public and private entities, spread throughout the local and provincial territory.
FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEAis aproject promoted and organised by the Municipalityof Reggio Emilia in conjunction withtheEmilia-Romagna Region, in collaborationwiththe Fondazione Palazzo Magnani, theFondazione Pietro Manodori, the Chamber of Commerceof Reggio Emilia,andthe APT Tourism Service of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2016 –11thedition
THE VIA EMILIA. Roads, journeys, borders
Reggio Emilia 6th May– 10th July 2016
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