FUTURES | A new Italian generation | Presentation of the 2021 talents

On Thursday 15 July at 7pm, CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia will present the artists selected for the annual edition of FUTURES Photography, the programme for the enhancement and promotion of emerging artists that the Turin-based centre has been developing for four years along with twelve other European institutions and festivals. Since 2018, in fact, the project has offered a comprehensive programme of support, mobility and visibility through activities for the five artists selected by each institution every year.

The meeting is part of the appointments of the cycle Hotel Panorama. Una nuova generazione italiana(‘Hotel Panorama. A new Italian generation’) through which CAMERA has launched a mapping of those experiences that today most characterise the latest forms of the photographic language, both locally and nationally.

The five talents chosen for Futures 2021 are: Eleonora Agostini (Mirano-VE, 1991), Matteo de Mayda(Treviso, 1984), Leonardo Magrelli (Rome, 1989), Giulia Parlato (Palermo, 1993) and Silvia Rosi(Scandiano, 1992). They will converse with Giangavino Pazzola, project coordinator, and Walter Guadagnini, director of CAMERA, about their own artistic practices, projecting images of their main works created so far.

Eleonora Agostini will present A Blurry Aftertaste (2018), a project that highlights a reflection on the precariousness of the notion of home, moving along the edge between photography, performance and sculpture, and thus analysing the complexity of the domestic sphere with a multidisciplinary approach. With There is no calm after the storm (2019–2021), Matteo de Mayda mixes archival photography and reportage, satellite images and other types of document to tell the story of the atmospheric depression known as Vaia which hit north-eastern Italy in October 2018. A poetic account that, at the same time, constitutes a reflection on a contemporary ecological issue. Leonardo Magrelli will take the public through the streets of Los Angeles and its surroundings with his project West Of Here (2021). The studios, Hollywood and the boulevards made famous through the world of cinema become a setting in their own right here, as the images were not physically taken by the artist but come from backgrounds and screens taken by different users while playing the famous videogame Grand Theft Auto V. With Diachronicles (2019–2020), Giulia Parlato questions the viewer with regard to notions of reality and historical truth, showing a catalogue of images that seem to belong to an unspecified and perhaps non-existent fantastical past. In this sense, she makes a reflection on the role that archaeology and museum space play in the legitimisation of historical narratives. Starting with the performative self-portraits of Encounter (2016), Silvia Rosi recounts the experience of diaspora and leads us to reflect on themes that permeate the contemporary debate: migration, identity, memory and resilience. A personal and universal story at the same time that – through the use not only of still imagery but also of the moving image – takes us on a journey through the imaginary representation of her family album.

Free admission with optional pre-booking on the CAMERA website (www.camera.to) under the ‘booking’ section.

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Co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, the FUTURES European Photography Platform (EPP) is a platform focused on mapping and supporting emerging authors, beyond national borders, to increase their opportunities of contact with the market. The activities conceived by CAMERA for FUTURES Photography 2021, compatibly with the evolution of the pandemic, will explore new operational modalities that will try to put together the functions characterising the project: conception, promotion, training and circulation of the artists and the projects they put together.

Apart from CAMERA, the partners of FUTURES are FOMU Fotomuseum (Antwerp), PhotoEspaña (Madrid), British Journal of Photography (London), Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center (Budapest), Foundation of Visual Education (Lodz), Photo Romania Festival (Cluj), Photo Ireland Foundation (Dublin), Festival d’Hyeres (Hyeres), Triennale der Photographie (Hamburg), The Calvert Journal (London), Copenhagen Photo Festival (Copenhagen), Tbilisi Photo Festival (Tbilisi) and Void (Athens).

FUTURES is co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.