Converted into an exhibition space, the former industrial complex of Base Milano will host 'A Glitch in the System, deconstructing stereotypes', an exhibition featuring the photographers selected through the scouting initiative launched on PhotoVogue, the photographic platform of Vogue.it, which boasts over 180,000 users, and as a result of the assessment of an internationally acclaimed jury consisting of experts from across the world, with different backgrounds and vision so as to provide the most inclusive and multi-faceted perspective.
The jury panel is formed by: Aaron Philip (Model), Alessandro Michele (Creative Director, Gucci), Alessia Glaviano (Brand Visual Director, Vogue Italia, L’Uomo Vogue), Alfredo De Stéfano (Founder and Director, Luz del Norte Fotografía), Ana Casas Broda (Photographer), Anastasia Taylor-Lind (Photojournalist), Azu Nwagbogu (Founder and Director, LagosPhoto Festival), David Campbell (Director of Programs and Outreach, World Press Photo Foundation), Dia Mehta Bhupal (Artist), Duan Yuting (Founder and Director, Lianzhou Foto Festival, co-founder and co-director, Lianzhou Museum of Photography), Emanuele Farneti (Editor-in-chief, Vogue Italia, L’Uomo Vogue, Casa Vogue, Vogue.it), FAKA - Fela Gucci and Desire Marea (Artists), Ferdinando Verderi (Creative Director, Vogue Italia), Ibrahim Kamara (Fashion Editor), Ihiro Hayami (Founder, T3 PHOTO FESTIVAL), James Estrin (The New York Times), Jenn Nkiru (Artist and Director), Jimmy Moffat (Founder, Red Hook Labs, and founding partner, Art + Commerce), Joana Choumali (Artist), Kimberly Drew (Writer, Curator, and Activist), Laura Roumanos (Executive Producer and Co-Founder, United Photo Industries and Photoville), Lotta Volkova (Fashion Editor), Marcelo Brodsky (Visual Artist), Michael Famighetti (Aperture Magazine), Michael Van Horne (Director, Image Archive at Art + Commerce), Pamela Chen (Creative Director, Instagram), Rahaab Allana (Curator/Publisher, Alkazi Foundation for the Arts in New Delhi), Rania Matar (Artist), Simon Bainbridge (Editor-in-chief, British Journal of Photography), Simon Baker (Director, MEP), Sophie Klafter (Photographer), Tasneem Alsultan (Photographer), Yumi Goto (Independent Curator, Editor, Educator and Publisher)
The current edition of the Festival, in keeping with last year’s theme “Embracing Diversity”, aims to continue exploring and promoting diversity in all its form by taking a step further, that is by extending the concept to include not only the subjects whose stories are being portrayed but also those behind the camera who tell those stories.
It’s not just a matter of choosing to direct the camera towards what mainstream culture does not perceive as familiar, and to promote the diversity of the subjects, but also to reflect on the way we choose to represent the ‘glitch’ – the alleged perceived anomaly within the system – so as to avoid perpetrating clichés and reinforcing an ideological vision that is the result of ignorance and lapse of judgment.
‘A Glitch in the System, deconstructing stereotypes’ has been developed as a new chapter in continuity with its history. After considering the power of the female gaze in the artistic scene in the first edition of the festival, aptly titled ‘The Female Gaze’ (2016), exploring the political implications of fashion photography in ‘Fashion and Politics’ (2017), after reflecting on, discovering and promoting diversity in all its forms in ‘Embracing Diversity’ and examining the concept of masculinity in ‘All That Man Is – Fashion and Masculinity Now’ (2018), the 2019 edition of Photo Vogue Festival seeks to broaden our ability to think, both in linguistic and visual terms, and push our thinking a step beyond the known and the familiar, and a step to the side from ideological and mainstream opinions.
What is necessary is to develop a language that is up to contemporary society, a society that can no longer afford an identity closure outside of history and whose political and social challenges no longer allow us to indulge in social prejudices, false myths surrounding identity or in nostalgic feeling for a bygone world – one that most likely, given what it resembled, nobody would have liked. It is necessary to develop a language, including a visual one, which is broad enough to represent all the complexities of our contemporary society and the endless wealth of the fantastic diversity of the possible existing gazes on our world. In this regard, the other necessary action is the deconstruction of stereotypes on which we cannot lower the guard as the meaning of images changes as quickly as society, its convictions and conventions while too often clichés are replaced with other clichés. Indeed, when a stereotype is decried and introjected as such by a society – as in the association of Africa and hunger or Africa and tribal culture, for instance – even the most noble intentions, perhaps in an attempt to ‘amend’ the cliché, end up establishing the opposite cliché, which is equally unrealistic and discriminatory. An education in visual imagery is essential and whoever, either by profession or passion, decides to represent the world has the duty and obligation to ask himself/herself a whole series of questions. We have made great progress regarding a more inclusive representation of diversity, one that is capable of considering the uniqueness and complexities of humankind. In this sense, the people of the web have positively embodied an increasingly more extensive inclusivity project that has come to influence brands and traditional media alike. The new way of looking at gender fluidity, at the diverse wealth of body types and appearances and at the endless forms of beauty, of ethnic backgrounds and origins is an achievement that is changing the contemporary aesthetic standards and is beginning to alter people’s cultural and identity codes in terms of openness, dialogue and encounter. This started to occur only when the narrative was being extended to include not only those whose story we are telling, but those who tell those stories and who often share the same life experience. This is the aspect to focus on in order to build a vocabulary that can describe the complex reality in which we live. Just like words, or perhaps even more so than words, images can hurt, cause misunderstandings, consolidate prejudices. Therefore, we hope that the 2019 edition of Photo Vogue Festival will contribute to the enrichment of our visual vocabulary in order to facilitate a deeper understanding of our contemporary society.
