Foto/Industria 2023 Explores Play Through Photography in Bologna

The biennial photography festival Foto/Industria, organized by Fondazione MAST, returns to Bologna for its tenth edition with the theme of play. Twelve exhibitions—eleven solo shows and one group show—are installed across historic venues in the city. Curator Francesco Zanot emphasizes that the installations are designed to place viewers on equal footing with the works, fostering direct engagement reminiscent of play. Featured artists include Andreas Gursky, Danielle Udogaranya, Raed Yassin, Hicham Benohoud, Olivo Barbieri, Daniel Faust, Ericka Beckman, Heinrich Zille, Linda Fregni Nagler, Cecile Evans, and Erik Kessels. Udogaranya's work celebrates blackness as a tool for cultural deconstruction and reconstruction. Faust offers an analytical view of Las Vegas as the capital of gambling. Beckman critiques post-9/11 American real estate and gentrification through Monopoly. Zille captures late 19th-century Berlin amusement parks. The group show "Automated Photography," in collaboration with ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, closes the festival with questions about the role of artists and photography in an age of artificial intelligence.