A continuous flow of enthusiasts, professionals, curious people and families invaded Reggio Emilia for almost a month and a half, a period in which the city was filled with great energy brought not only by exhibitions but also by events, workshops, meetings, presentations, competitions. All this was Fotografia Europea 2024, the most important Italian festival dedicated to contemporary photography.
“NATURE LOVES TO HIDE” was this year’s theme, a title that tried to tell – recovering the famous fragment of Heraclitus – the power of a nature that often hides its essence from our eyes, but which increasingly it often reveals it in destructive ways, in a continuous process that can be understood as an oscillation between being and becoming.
The exhibitions organized by the Palazzo Magnani Foundation and the Municipality of Reggio Emilia together with the other entities that make up the complex machine of the festival closed their doors on Sunday 9 June, noting a general increase in indicators compared to last year’s edition.
16,361 tickets were sold (+14% compared to 2023) for 35,732 presences recorded in the Chiostri di San Pietro, Palazzo da Mosto, Palazzo Magnani and Villa Zironi locations, locations which were accessed with the ticket. Added to these are the visitors to the free exhibitions set up inside the Palazzo dei Musei – the Luigi Ghirri exhibition and the The total number of visitors to the 19th edition is therefore over 75,700.
Among the many initiatives that enriched the festival, the third edition of the FE+SK Book Award, the prize dedicated to photographic books, created by Fotografia Europea together with Skinnerboox – a publishing house from Jesi (AN) specializing in contemporary photography, recorded a participation of over 230 candidates and among these the jury – composed of Chiara Capodici, Tim Clark and Milo Montelli – chose Benedetta Casagrande’s project: “All Things Laid Dormant”. Confirming the international positioning of Fotografia Europea and how much the festival has become an opportunity for the artists who exhibit there, Benedetta Casagrande’s photobook was selected and included in the short list of the Prix du Livre, as part of the Les Rencontres festival d’Arles 2023.
Around 8,000 people took part in the many events of the inaugural programme, including the concerts of the Fotofonia event, curated by Max Casacci and now in its third edition.
Success also for this edition of CIRCUITO OFF – the collective and independent event that completes European Photography with an exceptional series of exhibitions spread throughout the city – which presented over 260 projects by professional photographers alongside young people with their first experiences, enthusiasts and associations. Part of this circuit was also the OFF@school project which involved more than 26 schools in Reggio Emilia and the province. Without forgetting the Diciottoventicinque Special, the European Photography training project created to accompany young photography lovers on a path that goes from the conception to the realization of a photographic project, entrusted this year to Erik Messori, photojournalist of Reggio Emilia origins, founder of CAPTA collective, with great satisfaction of the participants.
Excellent result also for the guided tours and photography workshops organized for schools of all levels by the Educational Department of the Palazzo Magnani Foundation which brought over 600 students and 250 visitors with disabilities to visit, in collaboration with Farmacie Comunali Riunite (project Reggio Emilia City Without Barriers”), ASP City of People (project “Sguardi reflexi”), Consorzio Oscar Romero (project “Strade”).
As always, the work does not stop with the closure of the festival, on the contrary, the organizational machine is already at work to prepare a great special edition, the twentieth in its history.
