MIA Fair (Milan Image Art Fair)
23 – 26 March 2023
Superstudio Maxi, Milan
www.miafair.it
The 12th edition of Italy’s oldest and most important photo fair confirmed its position with 100 exhibitors (80 % galleries), thereof 30 % from abroad. No matter whether the galleries originated in Italy, Europe (France, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia) or even further away (United States, Australia, Japan, India and Iran) they had a warm welcoming in common. By the high motivation to explain their artists approach, the atmosphere was very communicative and personal. Like the artists coming from different corners of the world, the represented subjects varied a lot. There were photos with a more or less documentary character, pointing to current conflicts or environmental problems. Others showed cultural peculiarities, referred to art history or a state of suspense between past and future. In many cases, the technique of photography was clearly visible, both, in black and white or colour pictures. Nevertheless, there were examples, which more reminded painting, figurative or even abstract. A recurring subject was architecture and nature, especially trees were on focus. However, the borders of these categories are fluent, and more than one oeuvre could be placed in many.
More than Architecture
Images highlighting architecture were also diverse. Some were featuring complete buildings (Irene Kung) or urban environments (Alessandro Piredda, Matteo Mezzadri), others pointed to particular characteristics of the constructions (Antonella Sacconi, Lia Stein), and still others only showed special details (Elena Franco, Francesca Gariti).
Trees had often been the main protagonist (Paola de Pietri), even though sometimes only seemingly (Beth Moon). They could be a particular part of the scenery (Marco Rigamonti), build a landscape (Fulvia Farossino) or hide an urban environment (Jacquie Maria Wessels). Moreover, there were civilisational objects placed in a natural environment (Eiji Ohashi).
There were pictures, which evoked by their colours, texture and/or material character painting (Marco Palmieri). Additionally, several authors clearly referred to art history by the composition (Sabine Arndt, Simona Ghizzoni) or even by the framing (Tami Bahat). Sometimes, one could wonder if it was really photography.
Images showing cultural peculiarities could have a documentary character (Letizia Battaglia). However, depending on the chosen picture section, the staging or the composition of single parts to a whole, could point to particular questioning or problems. This might be individual (Mali.dk) or collective (Keila Guilarte), concern a group (Johanna-Maria Fritz) or even the whole humanity (Gideon Mendel). They could refer to the past (Shadi Ghadirian), a development (Delphine Diallo) or even the future (Katerina Belkina).
Moreover, there were many other interesting photos, not fitting in the proposed categories, focussing on the human body, food, forms, abstraction, sculpture and a lot of other motives.
