Art: Photo by Gianluigi Di Napoli, @gianluigidinapoli
MIA PHOTO FAIR 2018
In its 8th edition, MIA Photo Fair 2018 is on at The Mall, in Milan. MIA is a now a traditional meeting for collectors, authors, galleries and enthusiasts and a vantage point to identify trends in photography. Opening March 9, this international art photography fair provides increasing numbers as the venue, located in the Porta Nuova district, hosts 130 exhibitors, including 90 galleries (37 from outside Italy, double last year’s figure). MIA Photo Fair is marked by new projects, such as its new coordinated image, commissioned to the South African artist Siwa Mgoboza (Cape Town, 1993), selected in partnership with Lagos Photo Festival.
Visitors should plan their visit, in order to get all the opportunities from the Fair, looking at photos, meeting photographers, curators and publishers, gallerists, attending meetings or getting involved in performances.
Projects on history of photography are planned, such as those presented by the Jörg Maaß Kunsthandel gallery in Berlin with Berenice Abbott or Helmut Newton, by Spazio Damiani in Bologna with Hiroshi Sugimoto or Joel Meyerovitz; by Contrasto Galleria in Milan with Mario Giacomelli, or Ferdinando Scianna, by Photo & Contemporary in Turin with Gabriele Basilico and Giovanni Gastel, by Suite59 in Amsterdam with André Villers and Edward Quinn, by Galerie Frederic Got in Paris with Annie Leibovitz and Harry Benson.
Among the awards presented at MIA Photo Fair, let’s mention the BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas Award to artists exhibiting alongside the galleries that represent them. Partner Eberhard &Co. has been supporting special projects at MIA Fair on the issue of archives since 2014 and now the first edition of the Open Archives Prize is bestowed upon the Archivio Carla Cerati.
Caffè Artistico Lavazza speaks through the images of the 2018 Calendar 2030: What Are You Doing?, on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations to make our planet a more sustainable place by 2030. Proposta MIA is dedicated to independent photographers: among them, Graziella Vigo (with Portrait and Verdi on Stage, depicting performances of operas in the world’s greatest theatres), Beat Kuert and Edilio Livio Alpini.
As for the MIA Fair cultural program, it includes meetings about psychoanalysis and collecting, which are part of the new Art and Science format. Other events in this section deal with The collection for two sessions (interviews with couples of collectors) and Aestheticsand Culture. And a new look has been designed for the Publishing area, with international publishing houses, independent publishers and special bookshops.
The gallery owner Pier Andrè Podbielsky with one of his collaborators
The photographer of international nautical events Carlo Borlenghi in front of one of his works
The photographer of international nautical events Carlo Borlenghi in front of one of his works
Gallerist Glenda Cinquegrana with Giacinta Notarbartolo di Sciara
The Italian fashion photographer Giovanni Gastel
Italian fashion and beauty photographer Piero Gemelli
Italian fashion photographer Giovanni Gastel with his former partner and brotherly friend Bardo Fabiani
About the author:
Paola Sammartano is a journalist specialized in arts and photography based in Milan, Italy.
In the artist’s words:
Gianluigi Di Napoli gives the famous Medrano family circus a great entrance on the stage of his remarkable black-and-white photography, drawing us into the enchanting spot-lit world of the big top, full of the beauty and movement of the animals and the concentration of the artists. He invites us to take a look behind the scenes, at the hard work of rehearsal and the everyday life of the circus family. He shows us the emotions and human aspects of the life behind the glittering circus show. As the photographer himself says, “I wanted to capture the moment of preparation when the artist is waiting to make an entrance and triumphantly present his skills — the moment when the body already has a rush of adrenaline, the lights are up, but the artist is still standing in the dust”. “When I thought of making a work on the circus, I was inspired by the aerial suspensions and timelessness of the work Picasso did on acrobats. When I saw them, waiting to go on stage, I thought to represent this feeling.”
Website: http://gianluigidinapoli.com/
Instagram: @gianluigidinapoli
Circus Life – Everynight, all around the world – Gianluigi Di Napoli Photography
A Poet in Action – Gianluigi Di Napoli Photography