A sense of elsewhere and the research for new contemporary expressions of space, time and reality: that’s the focus connecting the projects within the Cortona On The Move International Photography Festival, at its 7th edition.
Exhibitions, workshops, international prizes, portfolio reviews, open calls and events animate the historic medieval centre of Cortona – in Tuscany – and the Fortezza del Girifalco. According to the festival art director Arianna Rinaldo, “this small town, in the heart of the the gorgeous Tuscany landscape, with its own great culture and ancient history is an added value for the festival, a natural stage for a cultural festival. Other distinctive features are obviously connected to curatorial choices, to guests and experts and to the proposals of different photographic styles. The Cortona festival aims to analyse, observe and study the latest photographic languages and the new ways of reporting today’s world”. And, we would add, an occasion to take a look at the past as well, discovering the fascinating world of ancient Etruscan (don’t miss the amazing chandelier at the MAEC Museum).
As for the Cortona On The Move 2017 program, it includes Obama: An Intimate Portrait by Pete Souza, a view of the man and his role in international politics through the lens of his official photographer, and American Woman: 40 years, by Donna Ferrato documenting the role of women in the USA since the 1970s, with regard to sex, love and violence.
For history: Donald Weber (War Sand) and Justyna Mielnikiewicz (The Meaning of a Nation – Russia and its Neighbours: Georgia and Ukraine), while the conflict in Afghanistan is examined by Adam Ferguson. Miyuki Okuyama, winner of the Photobook Prize 2016, tells about the children of Japanese soldiers and Indonesian women in Dear Japanese. Matt Black in his Geography of Poverty reports on communities in the US living under conditions of scarcity; Ilona and Maddalena by Sandra Mehl is a story on the daily life of two sisters living in the working class neighbourhood of Montpellier, while Silvia Amodio exhibits portraits.
Michael Ewart has been recording the transformation of Cortona during several decades; Daniel Castro Garcia deals with mass immigration crisis in Europe while Luis Cobelo’s journey follows in the footsteps of Gabriel Garcia Marquez between fantasy and reality in Zurumbàtico. In Danakil: Land of Salt and Fire Andrea Frazzetta discovers the Afar nomads of Ethiopia, who live in one of the most inhospitable locations on the planet.
Then there’s Golden Days Before They End by Klaus Pichler and Clemens Marschall, winners of last year’s Happiness ONTHEMOVE competition and 36 Little Good Things, a collective by 36 photographers mainly specialized on war photography, who were appointed by Arianna Rinaldo to portray moments of beauty and humanity. An exhibition featuring the botanical garden of Tenuta Granducale di Montecchio brings to Cortona a work on preservation of territorial biodiversity. Assigned to Jessica Backhaus, it’s the first stage in Aboca’s cultural project for scientific divulgation in partnership with Cortona On The Move.
Open calls include New Visions, Happiness ONTHEMOVE international prize, Viaggi da Copertina (front cover travel photos) and the Call for Photobook Dummy (for photobook prototypes). The workshop program of the festival is run in partnership with Canon Academy.
Cortona On The Move (organized by Associazione Onthemove) is part of a photography festival network together with Fotografia Europea (Reggio Emilia), PhotoLux (Lucca), Festival della Fotografia Etica (Lodi): the collaboration is thought to help foster the culture of photography by sharing each other’s policies in order to compete globally more effectively.
Paola Sammartano
Paola Sammartano is a journalist specialized in arts and photography based in Milan, Italy.
Cortona on the Move 2017
13 july– 1 october 2017
52044 Cortona (AR)
Italy
http://www.cortonaonthemove.com
