EXPOSED Torino Photo Festival FIRST EDITION

EXPOSED Turin Photo Festival FIRST EDITION

With 70 photographers involved, 23 locations for 28 exhibitions

and an experimental and multidisciplinary program,

the event in its first edition

in the name of synergy between institutions and cultural actors,

created the foundations to consolidate growth

and new collaborations in the next three years.

With over 46,000 visitors,

the international photography festival

strengthens ambitions and goals

to make Turin the reference city for photography.

Turin, 28 June 2024. The first edition of EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival has just ended, the city’s new international photography festival directed by Menno Liauw and Salvatore Vitale which, through the involvement of 70 photographers from 17 different countries, has proposed a reflection on the evolution of the photographic medium and the main challenges and innovations of the world of images, choosing New Landscapes as the title, in homage to one of the central topics in the Italian photographic tradition.

28 temporary exhibitions scheduled, 23 city venues involved, an artistic commission, a rich program of talks, an educational platform, an independent publishing fair, meetings, screenings, portfolio readings and other events – all created with the involvement of the main institutions, independent entities and players of the city and international art scene – have seen the participation of the national and international public and of the over 200 journalists and guests (artists, museum directors, curators, collectors, diplomats, professionals) present during the 32 days of opening.

The outcome of this first edition is positive, as demonstrated by the implementation of a vast program and the collaboration with city bodies and institutions for over a month of programming and the strong presence of the public, with media coverage not only by local newspapers but also national and international (including AD France, Financial Times Weekend Magazine, France 3, Apollo Magazine, Sky TG24, Sky Arte, RaiNews, La Lettura – Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, D La Repubblica).

EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival has been able to pursue the objectives for which it was born, namely to give life to a new public event in the metropolitan area, with a markedly international high profile, in a system logic and optimization of the resources and skills existing in the area. The festival has not only enriched the cultural debate on photography, accessible as an inclusive and constantly evolving art form, but has fully nominated Turin among the cities of reference for photography, triggering a dynamic comparison between artists and a varied audience of enthusiasts and professionals.

Starting from these results and from the indications provided by the Control Room, EXPOSED is working on the next edition, always scheduled for the spring period, with the aim of taking a further step forward in the path that intends to position the festival among the most important international events dedicated to photography. The first edition has in fact made it possible to identify the positive factors and the improvement interventions necessary for the development of the festival which will present some significant innovations from the next edition.

The Artistic Directors Menno Liauw and Salvatore Vitale declare: “We are closing this first edition of EXPOSED with the certainty of a very positive result: the success is certainly due to the collaboration and collegiality, which accompanied us in the definition of a program of a multidisciplinary and kaleidoscopic. We focused on an innovative and inclusive approach to attract a diverse audience, both local and international, through a program that encompassed different approaches to photography – from classical to contemporary, cross-media, installation and performance – which together they showed the impact art can have on our perception of the world, from local communities to global issues. EXPOSED 2025 will again feature a main programme, aimed at unveiling new trends in contemporary and cutting-edge photography, structured around a central theme. The program will be enriched by a rich and very varied extended offer. Both the main and extended programs will be carried out in collaboration with numerous cultural institutions and alternative venues in Turin.

Also for this reason, the second edition of the EXPOSED festival will take place in various locations in the city. But at the same time, a main office with headquarters functions will be created.”

Among the highlights of the 2024 edition are the exhibitions produced by EXPOSED, in collaboration with the partner realities: CAMERA – Italian Center for Photography; Former Royal Horse Riding Track – Paratissima; Gallerie d’Italia Turin; Regional Museum of Natural Sciences; OGR Turin; Palazzo Birago, headquarters of the Turin Chamber of Commerce; Palazzo Carignano – Piedmont Regional Museums Directorate; Palazzo Madama – Civic Museum of Ancient Art; Polo of the 20th century; Villa della Regina – Piedmont Regional Museums Directorate.

Even after the Festival has closed, Expanded, the exhibition project that offers a reading in three chapters of the photographic collection of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT in a single itinerary divided between the OGR Torino where works produced off-camera are exhibited, in which the image is generated in a non-traditional way (Expanded Without until 28 July); Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea which presents works in which the photographic medium is the starting point for investigating different types of relationship with the landscape, (Expanded With curated by Marcella Beccaria until 25 August 2024); GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino where photographers who have returned the multiple aspects of art by portraying landscapes composed of works and architecture, the face and work of artists or the natural landscape are exhibited (Expanded – I Paesaggi dell’Arte curated by Elena Volpato until 1 September).

The exhibition Paolo Pellion di Persano. The simple story of a photographer is also open until September 22 at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, bringing together for the first time an important corpus of the artist’s photographs, including many previously unpublished ones, creating an extraordinary story from which the artistic vitality of Turin and its territory emerges.

Finally, on the billboard of the Pista 500 on the roof of the Lingotto, the Pinacoteca Agnelli displays Untitled (1991), by Felix Gonzalez-Torres: an iconic image by the artist, the starting point of an urban intervention that expands throughout the city, occupying six billboards.

The festival – promoted by the City of Turin, the Piedmont Region, the Turin Chamber of Commerce, Intesa Sanpaolo, the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation and the Foundation for Modern and Contemporary Art CRT in synergy with the CRT Foundation and organized by the Turin Foundation for Culture – closes with a look towards the future.

The theme and dates of the next edition will be announced in September, together with the highlights and main new features of the program.