In a certain sense I can say that my life in Turin began because of about ten photographs. I was looking for an excuse to leave Rome and a crumpled yellow poster, slipped into my pocket during an exhibition in Room – Italian Center for Photography, it seemed to me that it contained a piece of my possible destiny. It was the call for a masterclass that the mythological ICP New York would have held up here. I know very well that I am not a professional photographer, I have always known it. But on my side I had a certain obsession with stories and some discreet travel shots, the rebel skaters of Galicia and the Afro souls of San Francisco. The course was intense, exciting. And he immediately made it clear that I was the weak link in the group. The other thing that was clear to me, however, was that photography remained a world in which I would always find refuge: relief, stimuli, raw truth or on the contrary, illusion, escape, fantasy. And that this city, in its own way, had a vital relationship with photography. For this reason, when I found out that in 2024 Turin would have been the location for an entire month EXPOSED Turin Photo FestivalI felt really good.
Two or three fundamental things to know about EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival
From the 2 May to 2 June 2024 the first edition of will be held EXPOSED Turin Photo Festival. With beyond 20 temporary exhibitions more than 20 different locationsa series of talks and meetings, a dedicated educational platform, an independent publishing salon, screenings, portfolio readings and other events, EXPOSEDfor an entire month, will redesign the map of Turin and give it a new rhythm and new energy.
The Festival, with the artistic direction of Menno Liauw And Salvatore Vitalewill be dedicated to the theme for its first year New Landscapes – New Landscapes and will propose a reflection on the evolution of the photographic medium and the main challenges and innovations in the world of images. Access to paid exhibitions, as well as through individual tickets, will also be possible thanks to a single pass valid for the entire duration of the Festival, with the limit of a single entry for each exhibition.
It’s already possible purchase the pass for the price of €25 at the ticket office INFOPIEMONTE – MUSEUM SUBSCRIPTION desk in via Garibaldi 2 or on the EXPOSED website, at this link: https://www.exposed.photography/tickets
Which exhibitions of EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival to see?
The exhibitions of EXPOSED There are really a lot of them, but I’d say you have plenty of time available. What I invite you to do – unless you are passionate or professional, with your sacred selection ready in your pocket – is to take notes here with us and explore the official website to be inspired and carried away by styles, stories and feelings.
The free exhibitions of EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival
For a first tour I point out the 3 free exhibitions to visit in the city. At Platform 2 of OGR awaits you A View from Above, a collective exhibition co-produced by EXPOSED and OGR Torino that explores the way in which our gaze is mediated by the photographic lens and how this relationship has changed in recent decades. To the Polo of the 20th century instead, Mónica de Miranda, winner of the first edition of EXPOSED Grant for Contemporary Photography 2023, will be the protagonist of a new exhibition entitled As if the world 2 had no East which tells the story of how new landscapes are created, investigating hidden ecologies in the geographical context of Angola. TO Birago Palace awaits you Tender Loving Care by Kalina Pulit project that reflects on the concept of belonging and the dualism between private and public spheres, in an era in which this boundary is increasingly thin.
Some of the EXPOSED exhibitions not to be missed
The new trends in Italian and global photography are at the center of the projects exhibited at CAMERA – Italian Center for Photography. Here it awaits you Heatwave, an exhibition dedicated to the South Korean artist Dongkyun Vak that explores the tension between man, nature and technology in the Anthropocene; here you can also find the project created in collaboration with Chora Media and Lavazza, which includes some unpublished works by Arianna Arcara, Antonio Ottomanelli and Roselena Ramistella on the landscape of linguistic minorities in Italy.
Queer Iconsa project by Fotogalleriet Oslo that explores the historic underground queer culture of Norway at 50 years, doubles as an exhibition atFormer riding track of the Royal Horsewoman – Paratissimaand in a broad public program that celebrates the charm of life lived outside the norm, through democratic demands, parties and activism.
At Galleries of Italy – Turin the Dutch designer and researcher Simone C. Niquille presents Beauty and The Beepa short film made with innovative tools inspired by the enchanted everyday objects of the popular fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.
TO Palazzo Madama – Civic Museum of Ancient Art is presented instead 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 veterans and Kenyan war veterans, in an attempt to reconstruct and fill the historical gaps relating to the official narrative of the colonial period.
Within the walls of Villa of the Queen will find True Colors by Mathieu Asselin, a project that questions the ecological narrative perpetrated by contemporary industry.
EXPOSED exhibitions in co-production and collaboration with Turin institutions and independent spaces
Inside EXPOSED it also comes to life Expandeda story in three chapters of the photographic collection of CRT Foundation for Modern and Contemporary Artwhich will combine three prestigious institutional locations in a single trip:
- Expanded With (2 May – 25 August) curated by Marcella Beccaria awaits you at Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Artwith the presentation of works in which the photographic medium is the starting point for investigating different types of relationships with the landscape, created by pioneers of Land Art, Arte Povera and Body Art;
- in Expanded Without (2 May – 31 July) hosted in Track 1 of the OGR Turinattention is instead focused on works produced off-camera in which the image is generated without resorting to the traditional photographic medium;
- finally with Expanded – The Landscapes of Art (3 May – 1 September) at GAM – Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Turinedited by Elena Volpato, retraces the Italian history of photography in relation to the theme of landscape.
During the inaugural week, the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation presents: the performance Je Vous Aime, as part of Diana Anselmo’s first solo show and her research in the photographic archives of Turin and Paris; the collective When We Were Old. Works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection with a selection of works by important international artists such as Anna Gaskell, Larry Johnson, Sherrie Levine, Tracey Moffat, Collier Schorr, Wolfgang Tillmans; What the Owl Knows by The Otolith Group, video installation dedicated to the painter and writer Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. The MAO Museum of Oriental Art hosts the screening of two recent films by Shahidul Alam, photojournalist, writer and activist from Bangladesh and outgoing curator of the Mannheim Biennial of Contemporary Photography in Germany. Alam is also the protagonist of a public meeting on the topic of censorship in photography scheduled for May 11th, an appointment that sees him discuss Eid-Sabbagh together with the Senegalese artist and activist Yasmine. Agnelli Art Gallery presents “Untitled” (1991)by Felix Gonzalez-Torres: an iconic image of the Cuban artist is displayed on the billboard of Pista 500, on the roof of the Lingotto, the starting point of an urban intervention that expands in the city, occupying six advertising billboards. Crypt747 hosts the screening Cosmic Radiation by artist Graeme Arnfield while Across the Oceanin the space of Mucho Mas!, is the installation with which the Vietnamese artist Hiền Hoàng uses rice to address the theme of German immigration policy and related discrimination; from Witty Books Fabio Barile presents Works for a Cosmic Feelinga collection of photographic works that use the tools of science and philosophy to explore what Romain Rolland, in a letter to Freud, called the “oceanic feeling”, that is, the sensation of being one with the universe.
Luckily my parents didn’t call me Serena. Romana never stops. I always miss DFWallace and watching Federer play.
