Festival F4 in Pieve di Soligo bridges 20th-century masters and contemporary photography

The 12th edition of Festival F4 / Un’idea di fotografia at Villa Brandolini in Pieve di Soligo, Treviso, draws from the landmark 1986 exhibition 'Esplorazioni sulla via Emilia' curated by Carlo Sala. The festival juxtaposes works by 20th-century masters—Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico, Giovanni Chiaromonte, Vittore Fossati, Guido Guidi, Mimmo Jodice, and Luigi Ghirri—with contemporary investigations. Barbieri's selective-focus technique captures urban landmarks like Milan's Duomo and the Colosseum; Basilico's methodical study of city history and light informs his urban landscapes. Chiaromonte treats photography as interpretation rather than passive mimesis, while Fossati pursues geometrically balanced landscape details. Guidi elevates overlooked subjects, and Jodice's work emphasizes waiting beyond spatial and temporal coordinates. Ghirri's reformist landscape photography re-reads the Emilia environment, blending reality and dream. The contemporary section features Jacopo Valentini's 'Paesaggi da tavola,' still lifes in restaurants that reconsider territorial identity, and the duo J&PEG (Simone Zecubi and Antonio Managò) with 'Fake Life,' using veils to disrupt representation, echoing Magritte's 'Les Amants.' A solo exhibition of Uliano Lucas presents 50 historical photographs documenting Italy's 1968 protests, factory life, social peripheries, and migrant conditions.