Photography fairs
Photography fairs
t: Emanuele Cucuzza
Waiting for MIA Fair 2014
Interview with Lorenza Castelli, Exhibition Director MIA Fair
(May 23-25, Milan - October 24-26, Singapore)
MIA Fair, the photography and video art fair,
conceived in Milan in 2011 by Fabio Castelli,
was created with the aim of highlighting the
transverse role that photography and video have
come to play within the languages of expression
of the contemporary art system. The fourth
edition of MIA Fair Milano will be held from
23rd to 25th May 2014, at Superstudio Più,
Design District, via Tortona, 27, Milan, Italy. In
2014 Milan Image Art Fair looks at Singapore
for its international expansion and it announces
its first edition in the new capital of art of the
South Pacific and one of the main world financial centres. The event will take place from 24th
to 26th of October 2014, in concomitance with
the 4th Singapore International Photography Festival. MIA Fair Singapore 2014 will be held at
Marina Bay Sands, Exhibition Centre, where
it will occupy a sprawling 3,500 square meters.
In Singapore the fair will include the presence
50% – 50% of Asian and Western exhibitors and
is expected to attract up to 25,000 visitors. For
the first time MIA Fair Singapore will present a
capsule of design showcasing collectible furniture and objects from several galleries, making
photography and design dialogue. MIA Fair offers art collectors the possibility to enjoy a lively,
innovative and interesting event, where they will
find both established and emerging artists.
MIA Fair strongly promotes education on photography, aiming also at creating a new and
young collectors’ base, which is approaching
contemporary art through the collection of photography. Seminars, topical workshops, round
tables are organized, covering subjects that range
from the history of photographic image to the
market system, from the world of collecting to
other experiences in curatorship and display.
Furthermore, collateral events such as special
exhibitions and portfolio reviews take place during MIA Fair opening days in Milan.
MIA Fair Organisation Offices
Via San Vincenzo 22 – 20123 Milan, Italy
Tel. / Fax +39.0283241412
[email protected]
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Lorenza Castelli – Exhibition Director MIA Fair
University degree at Bocconi University in Milan
and post-graduate Master in Finance at Harvard
Business School, Boston, USA. She is a management consulting and corporate finance skilled
manager, with more than 15 years of experience
in international management consulting and investment banking firms. Since the first edition of
MIA Fair in 2011, the first international art fair dedicated to photography and video co-founded with
her father Fabio Castelli, she has been working in
the family business as exhibition director and in the
business development of the Milan event. In 2014
she has been invited, together with his father, to curate the photography sector at Arte Fiera Bologna,
the most important modern and contemporary
art fair in Italy. She founded the first international
edition of MIA Fair in Singapore in concomitance
with the 4th edition of the Singapore Photography
Festival, which will be held in October at Marina
Bay Sands. She is photography and art collector
and design passionate.
One of MIA Fair’s original initiatives, among
others, is to feature stands with only one artist
per gallery, so that the public can have a better
understanding of the artist’s work. Do you leave
complete freedom of choice to the galleries or
do you make also your own selection among the
photographers to be exhibited?
“MIA Fair concept is based on privileging quality
rather than quantity. If a gallery exhibits just one
artist, is like having a kind of solo show, you can
breathe the meaning of his art in a better way and
focus on his artistic progress. Galleries are selected
by our curatorial team.”
Between 2011 and today MIA Fair has been adding events, workshops, awards and cooperation
projects with other international fairs. What are
this year’s main novelties?
“Some of the main news of the Milan edition’s
consists in the project “Caffè Artistico” promoted
by Lavazza. Lavazza has been the official partner of
MIA Fair from the first edition, and in 2014 will
have a new role as Main Sponsor, hosting in its
own space a section dedicated to 6 photographers
presented by 3 international curators. Lavazza will
give visibility to new talents. Following one from
the excellent results achieved in 2013, the show
will once again feature CODICE MIA, an innovative portfolio review completely dedicated to the
photographic market, conceived by Enrica Viganò,
curator, photographic critic and organiser of events
connected with photography. This year for the new
Singapore edition in Singapore MIA Fair will work
closely with the Singapore International Photography Festival that will be during the same days.”
The Asian markets, and Singapore in particular,
are very promising. What are the main approach differences, for example, with the Western
world, in your opinion?
“Historically and geographically, Singapore has been
a meeting point between East and West. In a kind
of way Singapore seems the right place where to initiate a new challenge. The Asian market is willing to
expand its tools and its artistic approach. Compared
to Western art, the Singaporeans artists have often
been described as “cold”, this probably due to their
regulated and conservative society. In the Asian Market and in particular in Singapore, there is an intense
research in digital media and most artists work with
photography and video installations. There for MIA
Fair will be the right place to be for a Singaporean
artist, in order to be known internationally.”
Generally, what are the geographical areas of
origin of the main exhibitors and what are the
main differences between the Milan and Singapore editions?
“For this Milan edition we will be hosting exhibitors and artists mainly from around Europe, with
also exceptions of the galleries coming from the Far
East countries, USA, South America, Australia.
On the other side the Singapore edition will inaugurate with a new design section. The new acronym
for the fair will be MIA&D – Milan Image Art and
Design Fair. Singapore is the right platform where
to launch MIA&D Fair. We propose to design galleries to showcase their Art & Craft masterpieces
in a new Design Section of MIA Fair making photography and design dialogue together.”
Considering your experience, probably you have
developed your own views of what are the most
common mistakes or the most effective techniques in exhibiting works in ways that make
them understood better and sell better… Do
you have any advice for “younger” galleries or
directly for artists?
“It has happened a few times that while visiting
art fairs, you step into booths that show many artists: not all the time works seems to dialogue well
together. So, in my opinion it is very important for
galleries to focus on few artists, allowing them to
express properly their projects and their arts. All
the artists have to be also strict in communicating
their works, including the number of edition and
dimensions in order not to create confusion on the
edition in circulation on the market.”
Like photography, which is getting increasingly
closer to the world of video, also the way photos
are exhibited and fairs are constantly evolving.
What do you see as the future of this field, especially MIA Fair’s, also in light of the potential of
the new technologies?
“Going back to the origin of photography we reach
the second part of 19th century. It’s really interesting to oversee its artistic development. At the
beginning photography main purpose was to capture instants of the everyday life. Nowadays photography is one of the main engine of the new artistic
research as much as videos. A wide part of videos
artists and collectors are expert in cinema. Maybe
for the future we could expect a new development
in this sense.”
www.miafair.it
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