Photòpia Festival Launches in Reggio Calabria, Exploring Contemporary Landscape Photography

The new festival Photòpia debuts at Parco Ecolandia in Reggio Calabria, an 19th-century military fort overlooking the Strait of Messina. Inspired by the landmark 1975 New Topographics exhibition in New York, which featured Robert Adams and Bernd and Hilla Becher, the festival investigates photography's relationship with contemporary landscapes. It is promoted by Calabrian association Il cerchio dell'immagine and Roman factory D.O.O.R., both dedicated to visual arts and photography. The festival's core theme is space—physical or mental—encompassing refugee journeys across the Mediterranean, postindustrial Northern European cities, spaces imposed during East German communist dictatorship, areas around the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway, Mediterranean wildfire zones, and mental labyrinths of knowledge and art. Exhibitions feature projects by Ricardo Cases, Tommaso Tanini, Alessandro Penso, Giovanni Troilo, Martin Erricchiello, and Filippo Menichetti, with a collateral show The Third Island at CRAC in Lamezia Terme. The festival runs until April 17, 2016.