PhMuseum Days 2024 In Review

Around 9000 people enjoyed the free public installations and other 2000 visitors joined us at DumBO’s Spazio Bianco to celebrate photography and the 4th edition of our International Photography Festival.

Since 2021, we have meant PhMuseum Days International Photography Festival to be a physical gathering for our community, bringing our online-based activity to the real world. This came with immense challenges and opportunities that led to the beautiful edition recently concluded.

PhMuseum Days represents a chance for us to reflect on what images can become when made physical and on the role of photography in our society. Year after year, we have been experimenting with structures, materials, and design solutions to re-think spaces and engage a diverse audience ranging from photography lovers to artists and people working the field. We have shaped curatorial paths where different solo shows could come together as part of a broader discourse. Most importantly, we have worked with 47 artists on individual exhibitions and more than 200 for collective shows, presentations and activities. Together, we created an informal and horizontal meeting ground for artists and photography enthusiasts, for insiders and the general public alike.

This year’s theme CLOSER was welcomed by visitors as a way to enter unique stories, gaining access to different perspectives on reality. As a curatorial team, we saw it as an opportunity to bring together passionate bodies of work. Projects with a sparkle, which made use of photography as a tool for thinking and a world-shaping force. Walking through Spazio Bianco, the festival headquarters, Only in Good Taste by Kush Kukreja and Trajectories by Beatriz de Souza Lima allowed the public to experience and reconsider spaces - a river, a hospital and a greenhouse - in unexpected ways. Octopus’s Diary by Matylda Nizegorodcew, The Skeptics by David De Beyter, and Grande Padre by Camilla de Maffei showed how we can craft personal visual methods to tell other people’s stories. Disruptions by Taysir Batniji proved how a slow, thoughtful visual approach can be a tool for social and political reflection. Thomas Mailaender’s greenhouse tunnel of Decalcomania, a hymn to photography as a cultural phenomenon, walked us to three exhibitions honoring the power of images: The Studio by Tara L.C. Sood, a homage to Indian photo studios, Close-up by Pacifico Silano, exploring and celebrating the gay iconography of the ’70-‘80s, and Härmä / Hoar by Utu Tuuli Jussila, the moving account of a grandmother’s last years as seen through the lens of a surveillance camera. Dummies & Books from FOLIO 2024 presented the works of Marco Battezzati, Martyna Benedyka, Andrés Mario de Varona, Dominique de Vries, Simon Emond, Sandra Guldemann Duchatellier, Alicja Khatchikian, Dillon Marsh, Alvin Ng, Anne Simin Shitrit, David Steinberg, Kairo Urovi and Clara Simas, alumni of the PhMuseum's photobook-making masterclass, while the Screening Room brought together 19 projects from the festival's open call, spanning different topics and visual approaches.

Open-air installations extended CLOSER to the public space. Existential Boner by Mahalia Taje Giotto populated the former municipality’s billboards installed in Via dell’Abbadia. Thanks to the collaboration with CHEAP, the pressing urgency of a story of gender transition was visible to passers-by, printed on out-of-scale blueback prints. For the second consecutive year, the collective show in Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio’s courtyard allowed us to make contemporary photography meet one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Bologna. 40 images by 40 photographers from all over the world, selected through the open call for their unusual and engaging perspectives, populated a labyrinth-like physical path, where they became sculptural and alive.

Panels, workshops, guided tours, and events such as Photobooks for Breakfast in collaboration with Sugar Paper, a morning conversation with coffee, croissants and a selection of photobooks, further activated PhMuseum Days. The Photobook Hub welcomed publishers Artphilein Editions, Départ pour l'Image, Disko Bay, Giostre Edizioni, Havaiana Papers + Tiratura, Muddyisland, Saetta Books, and Safelight Paper, who further invited photographers to present their latest titles. We wish to thank once again all the artists, publishers, volunteers, team members, partners, and sponsors for trusting the festival. Thanks to our growing public, to those who traveled from other countries and to those who returned day after day, edition after edition. After four years of curating and designing exhibitions in conversation with talented artists, we are proud of having established a young, yet prominent festival for our city. 

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As we imagine and plan the future of PhMuseum Days, you can follow our activities at the PhMuseum Lab, and our grant and education program on PhMuseum.com. See you very soon in Bologna and online.

For more photos and info regarding the festival, follow PhMuseum Days on Instagram