The city of Turin is a true hub of photography, so much so that it is launching a new festival: the Exposed Torino Photo Festival. Around twenty exhibitions in some of the city’s most emblematic places, allowing a refined look at the creativity staged and preserved in the capital of Piedmont. It is worth noting that the city is home to one of the first daguerreotypes ever made in Italy, dating from 1839 and on display at the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea.
The theme of the festival, New Landscapes (New Landscapes), opens up many possibilities for exploration, starting with an attempt to understand what photography is today, how it is evolving and how this change is perceptible, through an overview of current trends. The artistic directors, Salvatore Vitale and Menno Liauw, sought to elucidate this concept, studying above all the relationship between image and society and placing emphasis on the artistic process and the research aspect.
In a world of images, a photography festival offers the opportunity to question the possibilities of interpreting reality. Moreover, in Turin, this is inevitably linked to contemporary art. So Exposed divides and multiplies into streams with exhibitions that inspire us to think and question, which is one of the main purposes of art. It would certainly take more than a day to fully appreciate the complexity of the proposal, which encompasses works and projects from established and emerging photographers, different languages, techniques and experimentation. As is often the case, a map (physical and mental) can help people discover original routes according to their interests.
Thus, OGR Torino presents A View from Abovewith a world seen from a vertical perspective, which challenges the common sense of vision, with images by Mario Giacomelli and Hiwa K. (among others), at Polo del ‘900 we can see the work of Mónica de Miranda, winner of the first edition of Exposed Grant for Contemporary Photography 2023, with As if the world had no Eastwhile at Palazzo Birago is exhibited Tender Loving Care by Kalina Pulit.
We can only list a few of the summer exhibitions, but Turin is well worth a visit in late spring, as it reflects trends in international photography. At Camera – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, South Korean artist Dongkyun Vak explores the tension between man, nature and technology in Heatwawe (in collaboration with Vontobel Art Collection), and a project presenting previously unpublished works by Arianna Arcara, Antonio Ottomanelli and Roselena Ramistella on the landscape of linguistic minorities in Italy.
Queer Iconsa project of Oslo Fotogalleriet, includes an exhibition at Ex Galoppatoio della Cavallerizza Reale – Paratissima, and a public program that celebrates, through the life stories collected by photographer Fin Serck-Hanssen and authors Bjørn Hatterud and Caroline Ugelstad Elnæs, the traditional Norwegian underground queer culture.
American photographer and architect Erin O’Keefe presents at the Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali her project, Non fiction, on the perception of the nature of spatial perception and optical tools, as well as on the inevitable misalignment that the camera produces when It rotates to 3 D shapes and spaces in a 2D image. At the Cucine storiche di Palazzo Carignano, Lebohang Kganye presents Shall You Return Everything, But The Burden.
State of Emergency – Harakati za Mau Mau kwa Haki, Usawa na Ardhi Yetua fictional documentary project created by photographer Max Pinckers in collaboration with Mau Mau and Kenyan veterans, with the aim of filling historical gaps linked to the official narrative of the colonial period is at Palazzo Madama – Museo Civico d’Arte Antica .
The Villa della Regina hosts True Colors by Mathieu Asselin, a project that questions the ecological narrative perpetrated by contemporary industry. It is inspired by the Dieselgate affair of 2014, with prints made by recycling production waste.
The EXPOSED program continues with co-produced exhibitions developed in collaboration with independent institutions and spaces in Turin. Like Expanded, a project from the Collection of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT. It is an exhibition in three chapters, a coherent journey that begins with Expanded With at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, with works by pioneers of Land Art, Arte Povera and Body Art: the The photographic medium is the starting point for an investigation into different ways of relating to the landscape. Second stage, Expanded Without at OGR Torino, with installations created without any traditional photographic support and in which the viewer is part of the image construction process. Next, Expanded – I Paesaggi dell’Arte at GAM- Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino, which deals with the Italian history of photography dedicated to art.
The video installation Chimera (2022) by Lena Kuzmich, is presented at the Fondazione Merz as part of the exhibition Sacro è, in which the languages of a young generation of artists suggest a reflection on the concept of the “sacred”. Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo presents works by Diana Anselmo (I love you)The Otolith Group (What the Owl Knowsa video installation dedicated to the writer and painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye) as well as When We Were Old. Operate dalla Collezione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. The Pinacoteca Agnelli presents “Untitled” (1991), by Felix Gonzalez-Torres for EXPOSED: an image on the billboard of the Pista 500, on the roof of the Lingotto building, which extends into the city with six others. Cripta747 presents Cosmic Radiation by Graeme Arnfiel, while Across the Ocean in the Mucho Mas! space is the installation of the Vietnamese Hiền Hoàng. Fabio Barile is at Witty Books with his Works for a Cosmic Feeling.
Exposed is promoted by the City of Turin, the Piedmont Region, the Turin Chamber of Commerce, Intesa Sanpaolo, the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT on behalf of the Fondazione CRT and is organized by the Fondazione per la Cultura. Turin.
Just one remark: during the varnishing, the “photographic density” was even greater, with The Phair, Paratissima and other events, many of which are still ongoing, such as the Cristina Mittermeier. Greater Wisdom exhibition at the Gallerie d’Italia or Robert Capa and Gerda Taro: Photography, Love, War at Camera – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, And many others…
Paola Sammartano
Exposed. New Landscapes
From May 2 to June 2, 2024
10100 Turin
Italy
https://www.exposed.photography/en
