Announcing the Exhibition Program of PhMuseum Days 2022

Conceived with the intention to create a physical playground that could condense the 10 years of the online experience of PhMuseum, the PhMuseum Days is an event meant for sharing contemporary themes and languages, open not only to an audience of professionals. For its second year, the festival returns to Bologna (Italy) this time extending its program over two consecutive weeks, precisely 23>25 September and 29 Sept >2 October.

The theme of the second edition is Today Is Yesterday's Tomorrow, a wordplay to be interpreted freely, but also an opportunity to reflect on the power of actions and on the fact that the world of tomorrow will be the result of our choices today, for which it is useful to consider some lessons that the past has taught us.

The first stage of the curatorial journey starts with an analysis of the present thanks to projects such as Nothing Personal by the Russian photographer Nikita Teryoshin about the trade of arms for Defence and Asphodel Song by the French photographers Agathe Kalfas and Mathias Benguigui on the history of the island of Lesbos where the migrants live together with the inhabitants that are the children of refugees who arrived at the beginning of the 20th century.

The lens then shifts to the past with The Weight Of The Word by Italians Piero Martinello and Piero Casentini, who tackle cancel culture by describing the request for the removal of some eponymous doctors born in the Nazi era; Nuke by the Argentine artist Marcelo Brodsky who intervenes on the archive photo of a nuclear explosion, recalling that the only way to avoid future tragedies is that of disarmament; Good Hope by South African Carla Liesching who studies the intersections between representation, knowledge and power in apartheid South Africa.

The latter project acts as a bridge to a group of works that explore the relationship between space and time and reflect on the future and on our perception of reality. Among these, The Merge by the Danish collective Sara, Peter and Tobias, which takes its cue from Elon Musk's statement that there is a one-in-a-billion chance that our reality is not the result of a computer simulation. Mythic Humanoids, by Swedish artist Arvida Byström, a digital native who thinks about femininity linked to online presence and representation.

Finally, in the balance between past, present and future, we find La Linea D'Acqua by the Italian artist Sara Palmieri who develops a reflection on the representation and aesthetics of trauma in an attempt to resolve the fracture between individual and collective memory; Ukrzalіznitsia by Ukrainian photographer July Poly who captured the essence of travelling on the trains of her country before the current conflict in what now turns out to be both a nostalgic memory and a positive hope for the future; How To Raise A Hand by the Italian Angelo Vignali who, following the discovery of 313 fingerprints of his father, notices a striking resemblance to his own hands and embarks on a mysterious, touching and amusing existential journey.

The program of exhibitions also includes a collaboration with Portofino Gin which renews its support for the festival and photography, inviting an artist to Liguria who will take a series of images related to the theme of this edition which will then be exhibited; a collaboration with Cassero LGBTI + Center, where the work of the Colombian artist Ana Vallejo will be exhibited, combining neuroscience, psychology, images and data to investigate the theme of relationships and addiction to love; FOLIO, an exhibition dedicated to the works produced during the PhMuseum masterclass on photo book; the collective exhibition gathers 43 images by as many photographers around the theme of this second edition.

The portfolio reviews will take place, on Saturday 24 September. Among the invited experts are Francesca Marani, global photo editor of PhotoVogue, Bindi Vora, artist and curator at the Autograph foundation in London, Marina Paulenka, exhibition director of Fotografiska in Berlin, Giovanni Troilo, artistic director of PhEST in Monopoli, Bruno Ceschel editor of Self Publish Be Happy, Elisa Medde, director of FOAM Magazine in Amsterdam, Sara Occhipinti, co-founder of the Studiofaganel in Gorizia, and Paolo Woods, artistic director of Cortona on the Move.

The festival is also a space for independent photographic publishing. Among those confirmed for the first weekend, there will be Blow Up Press, BOLO Paper, CESURA PUBLISH, Départ Pour L'Image, Fw: Books, GOST Books, L'Artiere, Macaroni Book, Skinnerboox, Studiofaganel, and Witty Books.

Tickets will be available from 25 July on phmuseumdays.com. Looking forward to seeing you in Bologna!

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PhMuseum Days 2022 is supported by the Municipality of Bologna and is part of Bologna Estate 2022, the program of activities promoted and coordinated by the Municipality of Bologna and the Metropolitan City of Bologna - Bologna-Modena Tourist Area. The initiative also has the patronage of Bologna Welcome and a cultural partnership with Alliance Française and Photo Vogue.