REFOCUS visual archive of the pandemic exhibition curated by Matteo Balduzzi and Matteo Piccioni

The Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity (DGCC) of the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with Museo di #fotografia Contemporanea and #triennale #milano is presenting the exhibition titled REFOCUS. Visual Archive of the Pandemic, curated by #matteobalduzzi and #matteopiccioni. The exhibition brings together the works of forty young photographers who knew how to interpret experiences, situations and feelings during the months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The exhibition from 20 October until 21 November 2021 in the rooms of #triennale #milano presents 360 photographs that with a considerable range of themes and languages chronicles the unique period of Italy’s history by way of valuable visual documentation. Two open calls for artists were held between the Spring and Autumn of 2020. The first was to testify to the suspension lived during the quarantine months while the aim of the second was to stimulate a reflection regarding the transformations of Italian society during the period immediately following the lockdown. These public calls gave rise to the selection of the following forty photographers: Fulvio Ambrosio, Arianna Arcara, Lorenzo Bacci and Flavio Moriniello, Fabrizio Bellamo, Giacomo Bianco, Alessandro Calabrese, Mara Callegaro, Sofiya Chotyrbok, Daniele Cimaglia and Giuseppe Odore, Tomaso Clavarino, Antonio Colavito, Giulia De Gregori, Matteo de Mayda, Ilaria Di Biagio, Riccardo Dogana, Stefan Giftthaler, Filippo Gobbato, Luigi Greco, Giulia Iacolutti, Guido Lettieri, Claudio Majorana, Stefano Maniero, Luca Marianaccio, Guido Montani, Matteo Montenero, Domenico Nardulli, Claudia Orsetti, Mattia Paladini, Nunzia Pallante, Nicolò Panzeri, Claudia Petraroli, Camilla Piana, Benedetta Ristori, Giorgio Salimeni, Claudia Sinigaglia, Andrea Storni, Jacopo Valentini, Cosimo Veneziano, Hugo Weber, Alba Zari.

REFOCUS is the third phase of a more comprehensive photographic project of the visual documentation of Italy during the year of the pandemic, titled 2020FermoImmagine on the idea and following the guidelines of the Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini. In fact, 2021 saw the inauguration in Rome of the exhibition titled Italia in attesa: held at Palazzo Barberini in Rome from the 25 February to the 19 September 2021, it was dedicated to 12 of the most prominent Italian photographers. This was followed with the exhibition at Palazzo Poli from 21 May to 16 July 2021 titled Città sospese which presented the results of a photographic campaign produced by photographers of the Ministry. The intention of REFOCUS has been to concentrate its attention on once again ‘focussing’ on reality following the effects which the confinement had on the both spatial and temporal coordinates of day-to-day life, supporting the activity of photographers aged under 40 and acknowledging their fundamental role within society.

Further information in the press release to download