400 People For Familiar Stranger's Vernissage

More than 400 people joined us for the opening of the show co-curated and produced with Spazio Labo'. If you missed it, you can still come and visit us this Saturday, 25 January for the book presentation with Erik Kessels and Chiara Bardelli Nonino.

More than 400 people joined us for the opening of the show co-curated and produced with Spazio Labo'. If you missed it, you can still come and visit us this Saturday, 25 January for the book presentation with Erik Kessels and Chiara Bardelli Nonino.

When we presented the PHmuseum Mobile Photography Prize back in May 2019, our goal was to launch an open call conceived to reflect upon the mobile phenomenon and include a wider range of photographers, from amateurs to professionals. If we were very flattered to receive more than 10,000 images from photographers of 104 countries, we were even happier to see more than 400 friends and colleagues joining us last Wednesday, 16 January to celebrate the opening of the exhibition at Spazio Labo' in Bologna, Italy.

The show is co-curated and produced with the Italian photography centre and inspired by the Familiar Stranger concept defined by the American psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1972. His definition refers to those individuals who do not know each other but share some common attributes such as interests, employment, social position and so on. We have moved this concept into a virtual environment to show how we are influencing each other and our collective imagination, one post at a time.

As you can see from the images below, the curatorial team has featured 22 framed images aimed at reflecting upon that concept, other 900 photos displayed on several shelves to incentivise the public's interaction, and all the +10k images submitted to the PHmuseum 2019 Mobile Photography Prize on 2 TV video installations plus a scrollable iPad website to provide relevant datas and suggest to overload of images we are constantly exposed.

Familiar Stranger continues on occasion of Art City White Night 2020 organised by Arte Fiera. Spazio Labo’ will stay open until midnight and organise a special double event in relationship with the exhibition. At 6 pm PHmuseum's Director will present the book Familiar Stranger. There will then be a roundtable discussion about mobile and post-photography involving artist Erik Kessels and Vogue Italia’s photo editor Chiara Bardelli Nonino, in conversation with Laura De Marco (director and curator of Spazio Labo’), Giuseppe Oliverio (director of PHmuseum) and Rocco Venezia (curator of PHmuseum).

Come join us at Spazio Labo' in Strada Maggiore 29, Bologna, Italy - the event is free and with complementary drinks!

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All images © Spazio Labo' / Francesca Farini / Diego Brizi