Chiara Fossati's 'Whatever' Documents 1990s Italian Rave Scene at SI FEST

The 31st edition of SI FEST – Savignano Immagini Festival, under new artistic director Alex Majoli, is held in school corridors and classrooms in Savignano sul Rubicone. Titled 'Asinelli solitari' in homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini on the centenary of his birth, the festival features Chiara Fossati's series 'Whatever', a photographic project capturing the Italian and European rave culture from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s. Fossati, born in Legnano in 1984 and a member of the Cesura collective, began photographing her raver friends at age 14-15, using black-and-white film developed in her mother's kitchen. The series, published as a book in 2021 by Cesura, curated by Arianna Arcara and Alex Majoli, includes portraits and environments shot with a Hasselblad medium-format camera. Fossati describes the rave scene as a space of freedom and belonging, countering stereotypes of drug-fueled chaos. The festival catalog, designed by S.C. Artroom, is conceived as a school album. Fossati also performed a DJ set with Associazione Culturale Echo during the event.