Biennale dell'Immagine 2019: Photography Takes Center Stage in Chiasso

The 2019 edition of the Biennale dell'Immagine in Chiasso marks a turning point for the photography festival, featuring major artists alongside emerging talents. At the Max museo, Marcello Dudovich is showcased with a comprehensive selection of vintage photographs highlighting the link between his refined posters and photography. At Spazio Officina, Boris Mikhailov's 'double photographs' create stimulating short-circuits between instinctive and rational associations, with the exhibition titled 'Temptation of death' exploring human misery, sociopolitical pettiness, tragedy, and poetry without rhetoric. The installation uses large panels to physically immerse visitors. In Sala Diego Chiesa, 32 photographs by Arnold Odermatt, exhibited at the 2001 Venice Biennale curated by Harald Szeemann, transform traffic accidents into abstract, landscape-like images while retaining drama. Young artist Aline d'Auria presents a multimedia installation at the public underground shelter of via Soave, investigating identity displacement and integration through the lives of foreign residents in Chiasso. The outdoor project 'Guardare l'utopia' in the main square features monumental prints by ECAL students, blending body and written word, intimate rebellion and contestation. Numerous satellite exhibitions extend across Chiasso and its surroundings.