MIA Photo Fair, the international event dedicated to photography in Italy, returns to Milan.

From April 11 to 14, 2024, the 13th edition of MIA Photo Fair, the international art event dedicated to photography in Italy organized by Fiere di Parma, will be held at Allianz MiCo in Milan. Respect for the environment, enhancement of the feminine, identity and strength of the community: these are some of the themes that and galleries will present in this new edition. The main section, which interprets the theme chosen for 2024, Changing, will feature established Italian galleries, which find in MIA their space for meetings and business exchanges. International participation is also growing with important new presences of galleries from various countries, including the United States, Iran, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland. Important foreign galleries will also return. Overall, the new edition, directed by Art Director Francesca Malgara, will boast the presence of 100 exhibitors, 8 exhibitions and special projects, 4 Prizes and 70 galleries from both Italy and abroad. The great themes of contemporaneity will also be protagonists within the three special sections of MIA Photo Fair.

New for this edition is the decision to dedicate a section to the geographical area of the Mediterranean. In Beyond the Borders of the Mediterranean, curated by Rischa Paterlini, each shot becomes an opportunity to break down barriers and embrace the richness of the multiple perspectives that the Mediterranean and the Middle East offer the world. A story in images intended to talk about connection, where photography is transformed into a powerful tool aimed at stimulating reflection on identity and society. Among the photographers on display Ramak Fazel, Gabriele Basilico with Vintage shots taken from the series Iran made in 1970 during a trip to Kabul. Photos on display then range from circus performers in Muslim-majority countries by Johanna-Maria Fritz to concepts of identity and femininity by Egyptian visual artist Najla Said, who creates alternative and decolonized representations of being a woman in a patriarchal society. Also on view is Russian-Swedish photographer Xenia Nikolskaya, who documents Egypt’s colonial architecture. Beyond Photography - Dialogue isi instead the section curated by Domenico de Chirico and dedicated to national and international galleries that present a comparison between a monographic photographic proposal and an alternative artistic expression, such as sculpture, installation, painting, performance and video. In this perspective, two artists in particular, photographer Eugene Shishkin and painter Alexander Augusta, present their work. Both explore the beauty of everyday experiences and the inner world. Alexander Augusta’s works, shown in his first gallery exhibition in Lugano entitled Emotional Anatomy, are paintings and drawings that depict his emotions, integrating bodies and flowers in each work. The Beyond Reportage section, curated by Emanuela Mazzonis of Pralafera, then offers the public a visual journey through the images of photographers from different generations and countries, many of them presented for the first time in Milan. This year’s section focuses on the changing landscape, examining the different factors that have influenced its appearance and structure. Within this section, we find different perspectives: Anne de Carbuccia, a photographer and activist, presents an account of the irreversible melting of glaciers and human attempts to mitigate this process; J. Henry Fair explores the environmental pollution that threatens marine and terrestrial landscapes; Jeffrey Milstein ’s immersive aerial visions, on the other hand, offer a look at modern metropolises, highlighting the changing urban landscape; and finally, Francesco Zizola presents a project that analyzes the relationship between man and nature through the work of tuna fishermen in the night waters of the Mediterranean.

Italian collectors will instead be the protagonists of the exhibition La forma delle relazioni, curated by Rica Cerbarano, journalist and writer. With an exhibition design by the architectural firm Lissoni & Partners, the show presents a selection of more than 50 works from important Italian private collections. On display are photographic projects that are the result of a profound bond between the authors and the subjects of the images: encounters, comparisons, relationships and connections are the focal point of the works on display and are meant to invite us to reconsider the parameters by which to define the validity of a photographic project, which goes beyond its aesthetic impact, its economic value and artistic research as an end in itself. MIA Photo Fair has decided to pay homage to the photographer Carlo Bavagnoli (Piacenza, 1932 - Viterbo, 2024), with the solo exhibition Bavagnoli and Portraits: a tribute to the master of photojournalism, which offers portraits of artists, musicians, and intellectuals through his lesser-known shots, to tell the evocative power of this artist.

In this 13th edition, a new addition is the section dedicated to cultural institutions and foundations, with the debut of MuFoCo, the Museum of Contemporary Photography. On display here are the 10 winning works from the call Italy is a Desire, aimed at photographers and visual artists under 40. The exhibition offers a preview of the full exhibition that will be held at Mufoco in fall 2024, presenting more than 70 works from the 10 selected projects. Deloitte Italia is participating in the MIA Photo Fair with a booth dedicated to Deloitte’s Photo Grant, an international photography competition promoted by Deloitte Italia under the patronage of the Deloitte Foundation, in collaboration with 24 ORE Cultura and under the artistic direction of Denis Curti and the BlackCamera team. A team of experts will be available to offer a free portfolio reading to interested photographers and to provide guidance on how to apply for Deloitte’s Photo Grant Open Call. Also present will be the Sella Foundation, which will present in the exhibition From Wool to Photography. Back to the Basics the first images made by Giuseppe Venanzio Sella (1851-1856). Original plates and prints of mountain panoramas by Vittorio Sella (1885-1909), among the first to take photography to the top of the mountains. Also on display are landscape photographs by his brother Erminio (1898). Finally, the CSAC, Center for Studies and Archives of Communication of the University of Parma, presents an exhibition entitled Fotograf(i)e che cambiano curated by Cristina Casero, featuring the photographs that Anna Candiani, Carla Cerati, Marzia Malli, Paola Mattioli, and Giovanna Nuvoletti took in Milan in the 1960s and 1970s, documenting collective events such as political demonstrations, strikes, and referendum campaigns on divorce and abortion, from an alternative point of view to official information. The Francesca Rava Foundation, which has been helping children and adolescents, fragile women, in Italy, Haiti and around the world since 2000, is a charity partner of the 13th edition of MIA Photo Fair and presents ANOTHER WORLD_ triple layer art, a creative project by Marco Salom, visual artist, director, composer and volunteer of the Francesca Rava Foundation, curated by Clelia Patella and realized with the Votto Gallery. The subjects of the works are women who have overcome great obstacles and proudly bear the metaphorical marks on their skin. Luciana Matalon Foundation, will offer a selection of shots including the exhibition QUEEN UNSEEN | Peter Hince. Le Stanze della Fotografia will also be present at MIA Photo Fair. Swiss watchmaker Eberhard & Co. is supporting the National Museum of Women in the Arts at MIA Photo Fair with the project New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024 represented this year by Irene Fenara

The 13th edition of MIA Photo Fair also presents a new talk program curated by journalist and writer Michele Smargiassi. This series of talks aims to engage a wider audience in the fair, allowing for reflections on the ongoing transformations in the world of photography. The cultural program includes a series of conversations with leading figures in photography, including Anne de Carbuccia, photographer, filmmaker and activist, and artist Emeric Lhuisset, with a focus on his work “From far away, I hear the Cossacks.” Other names taking part in the meetings include Demetrio Paparoni, Francesco Tedeschi and Ljubodrag Andric.

There are also several awards distributed: starting with the BNL BNP Paribas Prize, a tangible recognition given to the best artist selected from those who exhibit their works through art galleries. BNL BNP Paribas has been committed to the promotion of contemporary artists in recent decades, emphasizing the importance of investing in culture for sustainable social development. The winning photograph will be acquired by BNL BNP Paribas and the artist will become part of the Bank’s collection, which over the years has also been enriched by the works awarded in previous editions, currently counting about 6,000 works. The IRINOX SAVE THE FOOD Prize, now in its third edition and curated by Claudio Composti will present a series of photographic projects focusing on the theme of food and food waste. This exhibition will also be shown in Parma at the Complesso di San Paolo as part of CIBUS OFF, the Fuori Salone of CIBUS, the most important event in Italy dedicated to agribusiness. In addition, thanks to the collaboration between MIA Photo Fair and Yeast Photo Festival in Matino/Lecce, the work of one of the 15 finalists for the IRINOX SAVE THE FOOD prize will be selected by artistic director Edda Fahrenhorst to be exhibited at the third edition of the Salento photography festival, to be held from September 2024. The Prize entitled “Welcome to my Unknown,” dedicated to under-35s and curated by Dutch artist Erik Kessels, is designed to explore the creativity of young artists who use photography as an artistic language, whether analog or digital.

MIA Photo Fair will host for the first time Il Manifesto dell’Abitare, a partner of the event, which will present the second edition of its Architecture Collective within a dedicated lounge. This lounge will be able to capture CO2 emissions thanks to a special paint, thus helping to reduce environmental impact. This union between Architecture and Photography stems from the desire of MIA Photo Fair and Manifesto dell’Abitare to promote cultural contamination by uniting different forms of artistic expression. To interpret the Changing theme,water was chosen as the element of nature that best represents change. This will be the common thread linking the projects of the architectural firms exhibited in the collective.

“Fairs are meta-historical,” said Ilaria Dazzi, Exhibition Director Manager of MIA Photo Fair, “daughters of their time. They stand and serve in the world, among people. It is not possible to think that they can remain in a kind of bubble. There is a trend by photographers all over the world to use the camera as a tool for documentation and denunciation. It is right that the public, through high quality photographic projects, can find, along with the possibility of purchase, an opportunity to delve into the great themes of contemporaneity. In this sense, I believe that a fair like MIA can be not only a place for business, but also an opportunity to meet perspectives different from our own.”

Image: Bruno Veiga, Deserto Vermelho(Red Desert) (2016; Digital photography - Archival pigment ink print, 100 x 150 cm). Courtesy TOBE Gallery, Budapest

MIA Photo Fair, the international event dedicated to photography in Italy, returns to Milan.

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