MIA Fair – Milan Image Art Fair, one of the most interesting events in Italy for photographic image, is about to start. The 12th edition will be held at Superstudio Maxi from 23 to 26 March. It’s an event that brings together artists, curators, collectors and gallery owners, and manages to attract visitors by offering a wide range of cultural proposals and images by Italian and international photographers. In fact, there are more than 100 exhibitors, including 16 special projects and over 80 galleries from different countries.
Traditionally, the visual identity of the exhibition is entrusted to an important artist: Davide Bramante (represented by Fabbrica Eos Milan) this year, with the work MIA MI, from the series Ideal Cities, which symbolically represents Milan, starting from the Duomo and the stratified architecture from different periods. In other words, a history summed up in an image.
We talked about the initiatives that underpin the event, such as the BNL BNP Paribas Prize, awarded by a jury to artists present at Superstudio Maxi. The winning photographs are acquired by the bank for its collection. The New Post Photography Award, now in its 4th edition, has no thematic restrictions and aims to promote the most innovative trends in contemporary photography. Among the finalists, one author is also selected to exhibit at the Ragusa Photo Festival and PhEst, International Festival of Photography and Art in Monopoli (BA), while another author will have the chance to participate in an international art residency in Greece. The Irinox Save The Food Award promotes artists who have explored the theme of food, which has strong symbolic and anthropological-social implications. An exhibition, curated by Claudio Composti, will be held at the MIA Fair with the works of the finalists. It will then be on in Parma (28 March – 10 April) at the Open Laboratory of the San Paolo Complex, as part of Cibus Off, the collateral show of the well-known event dedicated to food. In addition, one of the finalists will receive the Yeast Award and exhibit at the Yeast Photo Festival in Matino (Lecce).
Mia Fair also features a series of special projects. For instance, Reportage Beyond Reportage, aims to highlight the different nuances that this genre has taken on today (documentary photography, photojournalism, street photography) as the telling of an ordinary story that becomes unique. Another section is Beyond Photography – Dialogue, whose exhibition project aims to create a dialogue between photography and other media such as sculpture, installation, painting and video. The second edition of La Nuova Scelta Italiana (The New Italian Choice), promoted by BDC – Bonanni Del Rio Catalog, a cultural centre in Parma, is an award which aims to valorise the work of those artists who mark the evolution of the photographic language. The winning artists this year are Luca Campigotto and Paola De Pietri. Underskin, Stories from Iran is a project that analyses the complex political and social situation in the country through the works of Iranian artists, both emerging and established, and through talks in which art world personalities reflect on the key role of art in the delicate Iranian situation. Deloitte Italia is also taking part in the MIA Fair for the Deloitte Photo Grant, a new international photography competition under the patronage of the Deloitte Foundation and in collaboration with 24 ORE Cultura. The Advanced Technology in Health and Well-being Research Centre and ICONE, the European History and Theory of the Image of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, in collaboration with ETT SpA, are at MIA Fair with an immersive and interactive implementation of the NEFFIE Metaverse.
Therefore, MIA Fair offers many insights into contemporary photography, including the project Artificial Hell, proposed by director and new media expert Riccardo Boccuzzi with the support of Eberhard & Co. It is a series of original works created by “narrating” the Inferno by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy to an Artificial Intelligence. He translated the canticle by Dante into information so that the AI could understand it and transform it into figurative art. In addition, MIA Fair and BAG-Bocconi Art Gallery will present, in the dedicated space at Bocconi University in Milan, Arquitectonica, the solo exhibition of Gianluca Pollini (focus on Italian architecture) in collaboration with Forni Gallery, Bologna, and Arte in Salotto, Milan. MIA Fair – Milan Image Art Fair, conceived by Fabio Castelli, is collaborating at the organizational level with Fiere di Parma.
Paola Sammartano
MIA Fair | Milan Image Art Fair 2023
March 23 – 26, 2023
SUPERSTUDIO MAXI
via Moncucco 35
20142 Milan, Italy
https://www.miafair.it/en/
