FotoGrafia - International Rome Festival is now at its seventh edition, sponsored by the Municipality of Rome and produced by Zoneattive, with artistic direction by Marco Delogu. From April 4th to May 25th an appointment with the most interesting and innovative ideas in the world scenario, a compulsory meeting and exchange event for photography’s international system.
The theme chosen for this edition is “Seeing normality. Photography portrays everyday life” which – according to Marco Delogu- is addressed at showing “how for all of us photography is the best means for describing everyday life; a thought that also originates in a desire to portray normality in contrast with extraordinary events”.

A particularly concentrated Festival with a powerful nucleus at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, recently reopened to the public, which becomes the heart of FotoGrafia and will host the most important exhibitions – all new productions presented for the first time – as well as a rich programme filled with events, screenings, readings of portfolios, presentations and encounters with the most important representatives of the Italian and international world of art. Another important new entry is the Macello IV at the Mattatoio, managed by Zoneattive, a location already open to experimentation and new forms of expression with Enzimi, whereas the presence of the Museo di Roma in Trastevere confirms the location as a space dedicated to photo-journalism and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna.

FotoGrafia is increasingly confirmed as a festival dedicated to the emerging photography of young artists, providing a panorama of contemporary artistic experience and current research through a careful selection of the most interesting and innovative ideas. In fact, at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni there will be works by a group of young photographers, Paolo Woods, Leonie Purchas and Lucia Nimcova, all born in the Seventies, presenting three exhibitions linked by the tendency to address increasingly personal subjects and stories. Paolo Woods’ work, entitled China’s wild west is a journey/reportage following industrial neo-colonialism’s great hunt for the eastern tiger in newly conquered African lands; Leonie Purchas, after creating for FotoGrafia 2006 a diary of a Roman family, now achieves the completion of his work- that has taken her all over the world, from Cuba to London, sharing completely the lives of the families that hosted him – investigating her own family. Finally, the Slovakian photographer Lucia Nimcova, winner of the FotoGrafia Baume & Mercier International Award, presents the work she created precisely thanks to this prize. Starting from the chosen subject “A story from my world’, Nimcova has created Unofficial, a photographic work of art investigating and describing the utopian communist system through the history of her hometown, Humenne, using photographs taken from the state archives and those belonging to her family, re-processing them together with a number of photographs realised ad hoc.
At Palazzo delle Esposizioni we will also see the most recent production by Gabriele Basilico, this year the leading player for the Commissione Roma- FotoGrafia Alcatel Lucent with work on the River Tiber inspired by the atmosphere of the Milanese photographer’s two most important projects: “Bord du mer” on the ports of Normandy, and “Beirut 1991”, due to the particular colour used again in the new photographs of Rome. Basilico’s work is linked to the collective exhibition on “Rome” created by numerous photographers, among them Graciela Iturbide, Tim Davis, David Farrell, Pieter Hugo, Raffaela Mariniello, Milton Gendel, Miguel Rio Branco, Paolo Ventura, Shi Gorui, Claudia Jaguribe and Guy Tillim.

Burma’s political tragedy is presented at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere by Orith Drori, with a journey undertaken by this Israeli photographer before the borders were suddenly closed, from the city to the poorest country areas, following a truck that was taking an entire theatre company all over the country, portraying mourning and weddings. Daniele Dainelli instead concentrates on his Tokyo, in a journey during which he attempted to trace a familiar element in all that was totally extraneous, with eyes that become silently enveloped by this city’s many rhythms. The collective exhibition entitled Only in Italy, once again with the presence of Daniele Dainelli, together with Lorenzo Cicconi Massi, Francesco Cocco and Massimo Siragusa, portrays instead four personal journeys in contemporary Italy, ranging from the autumn of beeches with no bathers, to winter in the new suburbs and ethnic communities, to spring in the squares of provincial cities and summer in the empty industrial locations.

In line with its partnership with the Sant’Egidio Community increasingly consolidated in the course of the years, after sending Graciela Iturbide to Mozambique and Guy Tillim to Malawi to witness the progress made by the DREAM project, this year FotoGrafia sent Giuliano Matteucci to follow the community’s projects in Guinea Conakry, and Riccardo Venturi to El Salvador. This resulted in two extremely different projects, sharing however powerful intensity and a feeling of closeness, the first centred on silently entering the homes of the sick linked to the Community’s projects , rediscovering in simple but vivid images all their human dignity, while the second project involves the outdoors concentrating on a community of fishermen living at the delta of a river and the small settlements at the edge if the city of San Salvador, where every day people fight organised gangs of extremely young criminals.

Cooperation with GNAM (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna)is also renewed with an important exhibition of work by David Perlov, one of the most important Israeli visual artists. A famous documentary director. Alongside his long film career he also simultaneously embarked upon photographic research centred on daily life reflecting the living conditions of a whole country. Perlov continuously photographs the place in which he spends his days: his studio, the café below his home, his relative and strangers who happen to pass by, creating a grand existential mosaic based on a parallel portrayal of life in Tel Aviv and Paris.

At Macello IV at the Mattatoio we discover a cross-section of emerging trends and a chance to discover new talents. The programme consists in a series of performances by artists linked to new worlds recently addressed by photography, ranging from installations to presentations of projects linked to multi-media art, from performances to videos, in a series of events all created by young Roman artists selected by Zoneattive.

After researching the coastline, the Appian Way and the Sabina region with work presented in 2007, the project on the Latium territory sponsored by the Latium Region will begin this year with a workshop held by Olivo Barbieri and David Farrell organised so as to give life to a collective exhibition showing the projects on the Via Francigena (a main route followed in the past by thousands of pilgrims travelling to Rome) by the ten photographers participating in this workshop. The exhibition will once again be held in the ex GIL, which the exhibition of the project entitled Lazio, Terra “Not all roads lead to Rome” brought back to life as an extremely fascinating and powerful location for exhibitions.

After showing us the Lebanon seen through the eyes of the young Palestinian photographers from the Mar Elias school, Patrizio Esposito presents, in Project Room Villa Glori, the photographic work of the leading players in the battle for the Sharawi people’s self-determination, who this photographer has closely followed and supported since 1991.

The Festival’s inauguration will also be an opportunity for the presentation of the project for the second edition of the FotoGrafia Baume & Mercier International Award, selected among the hundreds of projects from all over the world, linked to the theme, "My time each day”. The award is open to all photographers with no restrictions and consists in the creation of the winning photographic idea, the production and organisation of an exhibition and the creation of the monographic catalogue as well as exhibiting the winning project at the 2009 edition of FotoGrafia.

The first review/award of countries that are member of the Italo-Latin American Institute, is instead devoted exclusively to young Latin American photographers from Argentina to Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Venezuela. A selection of the best work will be exhibited in the IILA art gallery and the absolute winner will receive an award consisting in a month long stay in Rome, during which he will have to produce a photographic project on the city.

The Festival’s Circuit has an increasingly rich programme, which thanks to the involvement of art galleries, cultural institutes, Academies and other locations (clubs, schools, bars, bookshops) will spread throughout the city a real springtime of Photography.

For further detailed information and updates on the calendar of events please see our website www.fotografiafestival.it. Info line 0039 06.70473525.

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