Back MIA – Milan Image Art Fair, the international art fair dedicated to photography born in Italy and which is preparing to land on the Asian continent in 2014 with the aim of becoming an essential point of reference for those who love and collect photography and art.
In fact, after the appointment in Milan (Superstudio Più, via Tortona 27) from 23 to 25 May 2014, MIA Fair will double its presence on the international exhibition scene with the opening – 24 from October to 26 2014 - of MIA FAIR SINGAPORE.
Now in its fourth edition, still under the direction of Fabio Castelli, MIA Fair hosts the best of photography, through its characteristic proposal, unique in the Italian fair panorama, which presents a stand for each artist - each artist his own catalogue, which starting this year it will be in an innovative format, moving from the traditional paper catalog to the e-book format.
The event, with the patronage of the Lombardy Region, the Province of Milan, the Municipality of Milan, can count on the reconfirmation of the partners BNL Group BNP Paribas, Lavazza, BMW i, Eberhard & Co. and Nikon.
“In just a few seasons – says Fabio Castelli -, MIA Fair has managed to bring a breath of positive energy into the world of Italian photography. MIA Fair 2014 will be full of stimuli and innovations and it opened with the success of the public and sales obtained at Arte Fiera in Bologna, where we curated, for the first time, a section entirely dedicated to photography. And it will ideally close with the prestigious appointment of MIA Fair Singapore, scheduled at the Marina Bay Sands from 23 to 26 October.
This year's Milanese edition – the fourth – will offer various new quality proposals, studied and organized by my staff with passion and attention, which I am sure will satisfy the expectations of our exhibitors and the public”.
In 2013, MIA Fair was a great success for the public. 20.000 collectors, journalists and art and design enthusiasts visited the fair and took part in the 10 round tables, 18 editorial presentations and 20 booksignings organized with international guests.
In the next edition, there will be about 180 exhibitors – including galleries, independent photographers, specialized publishing – coming not only from Italy, but also from Europe and the rest of the world, whose selection was handled by the scientific committee made up of: 3 /3 photography projects – Rome, photographic image research studio; Gigliola Foschi, curator and art critic; Elio Grazioli, contemporary art critic and curator; Roberto Mutti, curator and photographic critic; Enrica Viganò, curator, photographic critic and organizer of events related to photography.
Like every year, MIA Fair offers a program full of novelties, including: the Mila Malerba Award, Lavazza's "Caffè Artistico" curatorial project, the presentation of the MAST Foundation Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia or Parlando con voi, the installation with thirty videos that tell the story of as many Italian photographers.
MIA Fair will offer a rich cultural program, among which the lectio magistralis by Hans Op de Beeck stands out, the various talks that will see protagonists of the international art scene alternate, such as, just to name a few, Francesco Bonami and Urs Stahel.
Also noteworthy is the video art and music performance with Irene Grandi and the video artists Pastis.
LAVAZZA SPECIAL PROJECT “ARTISTIC COFFEE”
MIA Fair announces the new curatorial project “Caffè Artistico”, promoted by Lavazza.
An official partner of MIA Fair since the first edition, for 2014 Lavazza reconfirms its presence in its new capacity as Main Sponsor, hosting a section dedicated to 6 photographers presented by 3 international curators in its own exclusive space.
Lavazza thus reconfirms the inseparable link with art photography, a universal language that represents the Company's identity throughout the world, with its own calendars and advertising campaigns created by the most celebrated artists of contemporary photography.
The curators invited by MIA Fair and by Francesca Lavazza – Lavazza Corporate Image Director are: Antonio Arévalo, (Chile), Luca Panaro (Italy), Francesco Zanot (Italy). Each of the three has selected two emerging authors who will exhibit, within a monographic stand, an unpublished or recently completed project. Antonio Arévalo will propose the work of Ricardo Miguel Hernández, La Habana, 1984 and Graziano Folata, Rho, 1982; Luca Panaro that of Guido Meschiari, Carpi, 1982 and Matilde Soligno, Bologna, 1980; Francesco Zanot, that of Francesco Neri, Faenza, 1982 and of the collective The Cool Couple, (Niccolò Benetton, Milan, 1986 and Simone Santilli, Portogruaro, 1987).
BNL BNP PARIBAS GROUP AWARD
For the third consecutive year, BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas is the main sponsor of the event, thus continuing to strengthen its interest in the development of contemporary art in Italy.
After the success of the formula experimented in the past editions, the Bank is once again promoting the "BNL BNP Paribas Group Award" in 2014, a concrete recognition attributed - by a jury of excellence - to the best artist among those who will present their works through the galleries of art.
The selected work will be acquired by BNL and will become part of the Bank's artistic heritage which, to date, boasts around 5.000 works, among which stand out masterpieces of classical and modern art, as well as works by young contemporary talents. Among the latter, we recall "Niad, The small Crater, 2000" by Ohad Matalon (Tel Aviv, 1972) and the work "Paesaggio #7", by Luigi Erba and Roberto Berné, winners, respectively, of the first and second edition of the “BNL BNP Paribas Group Award”.
BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas will be present at MIA Fair with a stand, within which it will host two works from the exhibition the sea is my land. Artists from the Mediterranean, born from a project conceived and produced by BNL and curated by Francesco Bonami and Emanuela Mazzonis, on the occasion of its centenary. The exhibition, presented in 2013 at the MAXXI – Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome, will remain on display at the Milan Triennale from 17 June to 24 August. The exhibition investigates the Mediterranean area through the works of 23 emerging artists. This territory is told not only from a geographical point of view, but as a cultural basin that brings together very different civilizations.
GREAT PASTIS & IRENE
For the first time, on Saturday 24 May, MIA Fair will host an event that will produce a new form of artistic expression, with a video art and music performance.
The Milanese photography fair will, in fact, witness the birth of the collaboration between the singer Irene Grandi and the video artists Pastis.
The Florentine Pastis, made up of brothers Marco and Saverio Lanza, blend photography and music in a new expressive mode. The musical performance will be characterized by a continuous game of references, in which the voice of Irene Grandi will intervene on some of Pastis' video works, developing the various ideas that the images will suggest, giving them continuity and complete form.
MIA CODE – PORTFOLIO REVIEW
Following the excellent results achieved in 2013, CODICE MIA is back, an absolutely innovative portfolio reading completely dedicated to the photographic market sector, conceived and edited by Enrica Viganò. Only 45 photographers, selected by the scientific committee, will be able to submit their portfolios to some of the leading international collecting experts, such as Joe Baio, collector, New York, Anne-Marie Beckmann, curator of the Deutsche Börse collection, Frankfurt, Rudi Bianchi, collector, Los Angeles, Frank Boehm, art advisor, Milan, Lisa K. Erf, director of the JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, Alessandro Malerba, collector, Milan, Joaquim Paiva, collector, Rio de Janeiro, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, collector and director of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin, Janina Vitale, curator of the DZ BANK Art Collection, Frankfurt, Alice Zimet, collector and art advisor, New York.
CODICE MIA is a unique opportunity for mid-career artists to meet in one place the major opinion leaders of the sector and try to open new doors for their career.
The appointment with CODICE MIA will be held on Saturday 24 May 2014: each of the participants will have the opportunity to submit their work to 4 trendsetters of the photographic market, in meetings lasting 20 minutes each.
The event will be crowned by an award to the author with the greatest personality, chosen by the jury of all the experts present, for whom a stand will be reserved, free of charge, in the 2015 edition of MIA Fair.
The CODICE MIA 2013 prize was awarded to Bjorn Sterri, who will exhibit his works in the next edition of MIA Fair. The Norwegian photographer won the favor of the jury for his intimate photographic research focused on his family.
MILA MALERBA AWARD AND MALERBA COLLECTION EXHIBITION
MIA Fair will host the first edition of the Mila Malerba Award, established by the Malerba Fund for Photography, which is aimed at participants in the workshop “From photography to digital image. History, languages, market”, curated by Francesco Cascino, Fabio Castelli, Walter Guadagnini, created in collaboration with the ARTEPRIMA Cultural Association. The award will be given to the winner who, also in the light of what he heard during the seminar, will identify a work exhibited at MIA Fair and formulate in writing the most convincing critical reasons, examined by a jury. The winner will have € 2.000 available to purchase a work of his choice from those on the MIA Fair stands.
Furthermore, during the opening days of MIA Fair, an exhibition of the Malerba Collection, curated by Roberto Mutti, will be held.
The exhibition will offer a selection of authors divided into three sections, all united by a declared homage to the East, thus anticipating the projection towards Singapore in which MIA Fair will be the protagonist next autumn. The first brings together Western authors such as Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Thomas Struth; in the second, Japanese photographers Nobuyoshi Araki and Yamasuma Morimura will be found who cite styles and significant aspects of the West. In the third, there will be, among others, Naoya Hatakeyama, Daido Moriyama and Toshio Shibata. The visit will be accompanied by critical captions by Kiyoe Sakamoto.
The Malerba Collection was born thanks to the passion of Alessandro Malerba, starting in 1990 when, with his wife Mila, he bought his first photograph. The collection sees the presence of famous international authors and is managed by the Malerba Fund for Photography.
PUBLISHING SECTOR
Also this year MIA Fair dedicates great attention to the photographic book. The publishing sector, curated by 3/3, will host 30 exhibitors including specialized bookstores, large publishers, independent publishers and self-publishers, and the traveling exhibition of the International Photobook Dummy Award, which rewards the best photo book prototypes ready for printing (Dummy) selected by an international jury of industry experts. The exhibition will also be presented in Athens (Athens Photo Festival), Cologne (The PhotoBookMuseum), Dublin (PhotoIreland), Madrid (IED), Oslo (Photobook Seminar), Paris (Le Bal), Paraty (Paraty em Foco) and São Paulo (Madalena Workshops).
CULTURAL PROGRAM
Also this year, MIA Fair will offer visitors a rich cultural programme, which will be attended by the most influential names on the international photographic scene.
Inside, the lectio magistralis by the Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck stands out, or the conferences, such as that of Francesco Bonami and Urs Stahel who will talk about the importance of cultural foundations and their prestigious collections, or like the one in which Cristina Manasse , legal advisor of MIA Fair, expert in intellectual property and art law, and Joe Baio, collector and lawyer, will discuss Social networks and embezzlement. The emblematic case Morel vs. AFP/Getty Images.
ARCHIVE AWARD “TEMPO RITROVATO – PHOTOGRAPHS NOT TO BE MISSED”
MIA Fair hosts the second edition of the "Time found - Photographs not to be missed" award, conceived by IO Donna, in collaboration with MIA Fair, Eberhard & Co., the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Cinisello Balsamo and with the patronage of the Lombardy Region.
The award is aimed at private archives of Italian authors, often forgotten today, whose work represents a heritage of artistic relevance and great documentary value. The archives in competition explore all the various forms of photographic language, from portraits to landscapes, from fashion to design, from photojournalism to architecture.
After assigning, in 2013, the recognition to Federico Garolla's archive, valuable for the documentation it preserves relating to the 50s, the "Time found - Photographs not to be missed", will examine the archives of photographers active during the 60s .
The Scientific Committee of the Archive Prize is made up of Fabio Castelli (MIA Fair), Renata Ferri (IO Donna – the feminine of Corriere della Sera), Laura Gasparini (Photo Library of the Panizzi Library of Reggio Emilia), Lucia Miodini (Study Center and Archive of the Communication, University of Parma), Roberta Valtorta (Museum of Contemporary Photography of Cinisello Balsamo).
The Prize consists of a contribution of € 8.000 which will be paid in order to support the costs relating to the interventions necessary for the inventorying, cataloguing, high resolution digitization, conservation and restoration of the works in the winning archive. The interventions must be carried out according to the indications of the Scientific Committee of the Award.
During the opening days, MIA Fair will host the archive exhibition in a dedicated space and will organize a round table to celebrate the work of the winning artist.
TALKING TO YOU
The video installation Talking with you will document, through a suggestive multimedia approach, the life and career of thirty Italian photographers, from the beginning of the century to today.
The initiative, promoted by AFIP International (Association of Professional Italian Photographers) and CNA (National Confederation of Artisans), draws inspiration from the book of the same name by Giovanna Chiti and Lucia Covi (Danilo Montanari Editore).
The itinerary, made up of thirty screens, each of which with an exclusive interview with the photographer and a sequence of her works and texts, allows the visitor to get to know and deepen their lives as artisans and artists, their experiences as different women who have made courageous choices, pursuing a great passion for photography.
COMPETITION BORN ELECTRIC BY BMW i
Also this year BMW i, historic partner of MIA Fair, confirms its presence, promoting the online photographic competition Born Electric by BMW i, in collaboration with MIA Fair and Nikon Italia.
The participants in the competition expressed themselves using the language of photography on the theme of sustainable mobility, the cornerstone of the environmental philosophy developed by BMW and the BMW i sub-brand, through the production of low-emission cars, such as the new electric city-car BMW i3. A jury will select the best shot during the days of MIA Fair.
MY PROPOSAL
In continuity with the other editions and after the great results obtained, the MIA Proposal section will be active again, within which you will find the works of artists who present themselves without the support of galleries. The intent of MIA Fair is to propose photographers selected by its Scientific Committee, offering galleries the opportunity to get in touch with new proposals.
Out of about 25 artists in each edition, over 50% of them presented themselves the following year, represented by a gallery.
MIA FAIR SINGAPORE
After the successes obtained with the Milanese appointments, MIA Fair lands in the Far East.
From 23 to 26 October 2014, Marina Bay Sands will host the first edition of MIA Fair in Singapore, where the fourth edition of the Singapore International Photography Festival will also be held in October.
MIA Fair thus opens up to new global markets, in the city which is the new art capital of the South Pacific area as well as one of the main financial centers in the world.
For the occasion, the exhibition format will change: each exhibitor will in fact be able to present an exhibition project with several artists on their stand and, for the first time, will host a special section with galleries dealing with design works.
