Taking the word ‘production’ as a starting point, the second edition of Foto/Industria will examine the world’s supply chain, from conception to recycling. Running from 3rd October through 1st November, the festival will showcase a collection of international artists, including such renowned names as David LaChapelle, Edward Burtynsky, and Luca Campigotto, who have succeeded in capturing the sphere of labor processes throughout everyday life and society.
 

© Edward Burtynsky
 
Under the artistic direction of esteemed curator François Hébel, this biennial is supported by the Bologna Municipality and promoted by the MAST Foundation, a cultural and philanthropic institution that supports the development of creativity and entrepreneurship. Italy has a tradition of organizing festivals and exhibitions with the photographic image as the main focus, yet Foto/Industria represents a unique event in its genre, for it has the capacity to select a varied and extensive range of perspectives on the universe of labor and production.

The organization of such an important event further affirms the objective of the MAST Foundation to offer high-quality cultural activities that appeal to a changing and stimulated public. “Our aim is to make Bologna a point of reference for photography that describes the industry” says Isabella Serágnoli, President of the MAST Foundation. “We have consolidated a partnership with the municipal administration that will make this initiative even more successful and will help to promote this city recognized for its unique characteristics in the world of industry.”

Foto/Industria 2015 is comprised of 14 exhibitions, each held in alluring spaces throughout the city center: historical landmarks, Baroque chapels, traditional museums, and modern art galleries, all close enough to be accessed on foot. Admissions to all festival shows are free.
 
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The Exhibitions

 
 
The exhibitions have been divided into five categories, namely Production, Post-Production, Producers, Pause, and Products, while the MAST Foundation will present a showcase of the finalists of the fourth GD4PhotoArt competition, and a display of photobooks devoted to Italian industry. With esteemed artists exhibiting their work alongside reporters, portraitists, corporate photographers, and young professionals, Foto/Industria presents an unparalleled combination of perspectives and methods that are at once compelling, unexpected, and significant.
 
“The exhibitions are inscribed in an alliance between photography and the viewers, in the sense of making the images speak and recounting a fascinating tale about occupations and those who work” says Serágnoli. “Creating a dialogue between public and private collectors; exhibiting previously unpublished or rarely seen photographs; reconciling the twentieth century with the twenty-first; superseding the ambiguity of the photographic image between document and artistic value; exploring our relationship with the world and society that works: these are the hallmarks of the Biennial of Industrial Photography.”
 
 
 

1. Post-Production

 
 
 

David LaChapelle, New York, US. Land Scape

 
Pinacoteca Nazionale
  

© David LaChapelle
 
 

Hong Hao, Beijing, China. My Things, Bottom

 
Istituzione Bologna Musei
 
MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna
 

© Hong Hao
 
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2. Production:

 
 
 

Edward Burtynsky, Toronto, Canada. Manufactured Landscapes

 
Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande
 

© Edward Burtynsky
 
 

O. Winston Link, New York, US. Norfolk and Western Railways

 
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna
 
Casa Saraceni
 

© The Estate of O. Winston Link
 
 

Luca Campigotto, Milan, Italy. The Poetry of the Giants

 
Spazio Carbonesi
 

© Luca Campigotto
 
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3. Producers:

 
 
 

Pierre Gonnord, Madrid, Spain. (Other) Workers

 
Genus Bononiae
 
Santa Maria della Vita
 

© Pierre Gonnord

 
 

Neal Slavin, New York, US. Group Portraits

 
Spazio Carbonesi
 

© Neal Slavin
 
 

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Milan, Italy. Man, Work, Machine

 
Fondazione del Monte
 
Palazzo Paltroni
 

© Gianni Berengo Gardin
 
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4. Pause:

 
 
 

Kathy Ryan, New York, US. Office Romance

 
Istituzione Bologna Musei
 
Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica
 

© Kathy Ryan
 
 

Jason Sangik Noh, Seoul, South Korea. Biography of Cancer

 
Istituzione Bologna Musei
 
Villa delle Rose
 

© Jason Sangik Noh
 
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5. Products:

 
 
 

Hein Gorny, Berlin, Germany. New Objectivity and Industry

 
Genus Bononiae
 
Museo della Storia di Bologna
 

© Hein Gorny
 
 

Léon Gimpel, Paris, France. Illuminations, Paris, 1925

 
Museo di Palazzo Poggi
 
SMA – Sistema Museale d’Ateneo
 

© Léon Gimpel
 
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MAST Foundation

 
 
 

GD4PhotoArt Competition Finalists

 
Marc Roig Blesa, Raphaël Dallaporta, Madhuban Mitra & Manas Bhattacharya, and Óscar Monzón
 
MAST Gallery
 

© Óscar Monzón
 
 

From Albums to Photobooks

 
Italian Industry in 120 Volumes. Savina Palmieri Collection
 
MAST Gallery
 

Impresa Umberto Girola, 1933 XI – 1939 XVII – Fotografo: Antonio Paoletti
 
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The Foto/Industria biennial has become an important event for the city of Bologna; one that brings extra value to the local community and its industrial traditions. In addition to the exhibitions, the MAST Foundation and the City Administration have together designed a supplementary program of supporting events that they hope will encourage visitors to engage with the photographers and the curators. In the words of François Hébel: “The Bologna Foto/Industria Biennale hopes to expand the domain of industrial photography for a far greater public and help develop the quality of our glimpse.”
 
To learn more about the 2015 edition of Foto/Industria, visit the festival’s offical website.
 

 FROM ALBUMS TO PHOTOBOOKS
ITALIAN INDUSTRY IN 120 VOLUMES SAVINA PALMIERI COLLECTION

First came the album, then the booklet and later the book. For over a century, industry has introduced new ways of using prining in its communications: showpiece albums, advertising brochures, anniversary books, and so on. Companies’ 50th, 100th and 150th anniversaries were often celebrated with lavishly printed and bound self-portraits. Words and pictures combined to represent past achievements and the company’s prosperity. The exhibition uses 120 volumes from Italian industry to trace the development of photography books. It is also a stroll through Italian industrial photography and the history of Italian enterprises. A number of video projections make it possible to follow the page sequence. All the books come from the Savina Palmieri collection, Milan. The show is accompanied by a critical introduction by Cesare Colombo.


Impresa Umberto Girola, 1933 XI-1939 XVII (II) Fotografo: Antonio Paoletti Umberto Girola Industrial company, 1933 XI-1939 XVII (II) Photographer: Antonio Paoletti



Ansaldo, Costruzioni navali, costruzioni belliche, costruzioni ferrotranviarie, costruzioni industriali e metalliche, impianti termici elettrici e termoelettrici, prodotti metallurgici, Genova-Cornigliano, Istituto Italiano d’Arti Grafiche di Bergamo, 1937-XV Ansaldo, Ship building, arms production, tram and railway construction, industrial and metal construction, electric and thermoelectric power plants, metallurgical products, Genoa-Cornigliano, Italian Graphic Arts Institute, Bergamo, 1937-XV



Cementeria di Merone, 1900-50, Pubblicazione commemorativa del cinquantenario di fondazione della ditta, Amilcare Pizzi, Milano 1950 Fotografo: anonimo Merone cement works, 1900-50, Commemorative publication to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the company’s foundation, Amilcare Pizzi, Milan 1950 Photographer: Anonymous



 L’industria Italiana per i suoi operai, Confederazione Generale dell’Industria Italiana, Tumminelli, Roma 1953 Italian Industry for its Workers, General Confederation of Italian Industry, Tumminelli, Rome 1953



Immagine di una fabbrica, Fretz & Wasmuth Editore, Zurigo 1959 Fotografo: Kurt Blum, Copertina: Eugenio Carmi Images of a Factory, Fretz & Wasmuth Editor, Zurich 1959 Photographer: Kurt Blum, Cover: Eugenio Carmi

Blum was the subject of a 2012 retrospective at the Swiss Foundation for Photography . Immagine di una fabbrica is included in 802 Photo Books. A selection from the M+M. Auer collection
"Kurt Blum (1922-2005), who was born in Berne, was one of the outstanding Swiss photographers of the post-war era. In addition to numerous stories for illustrated magazines, as of the 1950s he also did free artistic and experimental works which were presented to a wider public in exhibitions and publications. The focal points of his oeuvre were the artists’ portraits he took as of the late 1940s, larger work groups on the themes of dance and opera, and an intense involvement through photography and film with the world of industry and labor. Blum always regarded himself as an artist, however, and strove for photography to be recognized as an independent art medium. Above and beyond the documentary aspect, he sought subjective expressiveness, the atmospherically dense moment, the consciously composed photographic print. Blum thus belonged to the avant-garde of Swiss photography, so it is not surprising that he also played a role in the 'subjective photography' circle around Otto Steinert in Germany in the early 1950s....Kurt Blum worked for large industrial companies in northern Italy, leading in 1959 to the book Pictures of a factory (German title Lebendiger Stahl, 1960), in which he presented an almost infernal image of a steel works, sparks flying, by means of black-and-white photographs rich in contrasts"--Swiss Foundation for Photography 



Enzo Aresani, Fernando Fondi, Caterina Ossola, Renato Padovan, Vittorio Ponti, Giuseppe Tanzi 
Ignis 25
Varese /Milano, Ignis / Rizzoli 1969
Tela. ed. con titoli impressi e sovraccoperta  (28X20) pp. 178
Hardback with dust jacket
Con 61 tavole fotografiche a colori e 26 b/n anche a piena pagina + 5 illustrazioni a colori
Pubblicazione aziendale per celebrare i 25 anni del marchio
Company book to celebrate 25 years of the brand
61 colour and 26 b/w photographs and 5 colour illustrations
Citato in The photobook: a history. Volume 2 di  M. Parr e G. Badger pag. 198
Included in " the photobook a history Volume 2  by M. Parr and G. Badger p. 198



L’uomo in fabbrica, Direzione Informazioni del Gruppo Fiat, Torino 1971, © by PAN EDITRICE srl, Milano Fotografo: anonimo Man in the factory, Fiat Group Information Department, Turin 1971, © by PAN EDITRICE srl, Milan Photographer: Anonymous



Milano ritratti di fabbriche, SugarCo, Como 1981 Fotografo: Gabriele Basilico Milan, factory portraits, SugarCo, Como 1981 Photographer: Gabriele Basilico


Chimica Aperta, Leonardo Arte, Milano 1995 Fotografi: Gabriele Basilico, Vincenzo Castella, Moreno Gentili, Mimmo Jodice, Toni Thorimbert Open Chemistry, Leonardo Arte, Milan 1995 Photographers: Gabriele Basilico, Vincenzo Castella, Moreno Gentili, Mimmo Jodice, Toni Thorimbert



Industria, Photo Publisher, Torino 2012 Fotografo: Niccolò Biddau Industry, Photo Publisher, Turin 2012 Photographer: Niccolò Biddau



La Snia Viscosa nel suo 40° anno, 1917-57, Istituto Grafico Bertieri, Milano 1958 Fotografo: anonimo Snia Viscosa, 40th anniversary, 1917-57, Istituto Grafico Bertieri, Milan 1958 Photographer: Anonymous


Mezzo secolo di Snia Viscosa, Amilcare Pizzi, Milano 1970, Archivio Snia Viscosa Half a Century of Snia Viscosa, Amilcare Pizzi, Milan 1970, Snia Viscosa Archives