MAST Photography Grant On Industry And Work 2025 at MAST

Created in 2007 and initially called GD4PhotoArt, the award has become part of a broader project coordinated by the MAST Foundation, an international cultural and philanthropic institution founded in Bologna in 2013.

Overview

MAST Foundation presents the works of the five finalists of the 8th edition of this photography competition, curated by Urs Stahel: Felicity Hammond, Gosette Lubondo, Silvia Rosi, Sheida Soleimani and Kai Wasikowski. Selected from among forty-two candidates under the age of 35 from all over the world, the five finalists have each developed an original and unpublished project for Fondazione MAST on the topics of industry and work.

Sheida Soleimani (Providence, Rhode Island, 1990) is the winner of this 8th edition with the artistic project titled Flyways. The project seeks to identify various escape routes from a world that, in her view, is dominated increasingly by the destruction of all human and other life forms. The images shown by the artist talk to us on two levels: stories of the women who animate the Women, Life, Freedom protest movement in Iran, and the travails of migratory birds injured in collisions with man-made buildings and structures.

Felicity Hammond (Birmingham, UK, 1988): Autonomous Body. Here the artist seeks to establish new connections between the past and the future of automobile production. The images created by Hammond explore and contrast current production processes, still reliant on mining and nineteenth-century industrialization, with the latest advances in autonomous driving that render automobiles increasingly independent of their drivers.

Gosette Lubondo (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1993): Imaginary Trip III. Via a series of photographs that focus on the colonial industries of Lukula, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the artist delves further into the history and collective memory of her country. Mostly specialized in the production of wood, these places were the nerve centers of the local economy.

Silvia Rosi (Scandiano, Italy, 1992): Kɔdi. The title of this series refers to the Togolese word for “code”. The work presented by Rosi comprises a series of portraits and self-portrayals inspired by the stories of the “Nana Benz”: powerful women in Lomé, Togo, who controlled the trade in wax-printed fabrics and played an important role in winning independence from the colonial powers.

Kai Wasikowski (Gadigal Land / Sydney, Australia, 1992): The Bees and the Ledger. The works of Wasikowski investigate how, for various reasons, migratory flows often result in the dissipation of professionalism: work experience accumulated in the home country is not recognized in the new land, generating a direct loss. This research starts with his grandmother, who immigrated from Poland to Australia in the 1970s.

Every two years, through the MAST Photography Grant on Industry and Work, the MAST Foundation gives five young international artists the opportunity of delving into the industrial, technological world and exploring its systems of labour and capital, invention, development and production. 

At the heart of the Grant is the international jury of experts in the field of photography. The Jury indicates a series of international nominators, who identify a number of talented young photographers inviting them to take part in the competition. The candidates have to present a project of photography on industry and work that they would like to carry out for the award. Among the candidates, the jury selects five finalists who receive a grant. Once the projects are completed, the MAST Foundation sets up the exhibition of the works and publishes the catalogue. The day before the opening, the jury selects the winner who receives a further prize. 

The competition has contributed to creating a collection of photographs by contemporary artists whose works are included in the MAST Foundation’s historic and articulated industrial photography collection consisting of over 6,000 works and curated by Urs Stahel. All the activities connected to the collection are based in the space devoted to the themes of industry and work located in the MAST Photo Gallery. The grant also takes place within this specific and original project.