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SI FEST 30-year anniversary

by /// February 14, 2022
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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Thirty years: it’s quite an achievement for a Festival. It means being part of the history of photography. Yet the SI FEST, in Savignano sul Rubicone, is younger than ever, stretched out towards the future and rich in exhibitions and engaging events.

FUTURA, I domani della fotografia is the title of this edition – declined to the feminine, but also in the Latin sense of the term, as the plural form for things that are to come to light – projected towards far-off worlds and more than ever determined to reveal us the present.

SI FEST 2021

Time and nature

For the SI FEST thirtieth anniversary, the artistic director Denis Curti highlights on timestream, so reflecting on the past and the present with a glimpse to hypothesis on the possible future, at a time when, more than ever, Man is aware of being part of Nature, on which its future depends.

Some exhibitions explicitly deal with this issue: Same but different by Arno Rafael Minkkinen (the human figure, as a part of a complex ecosystem, blends with the natural landscape); Polarnight by Esther Horvath, (a photographic project created during an expedition aimed at the study of global warming in the Arctic); Riflessi sull’acqua by Mario Vidor (presented at the SI FEST 1st edition, it’s revived on the occasion of this special birthday).

  • © Esther Horvath, Mosaic, POLARNIGHT Allison Fong conduce un carotaggio. 8 dicembre 2019
  • © Marco Pesaresi, I megastore
  • © Monia Marchionni, Rilegno. Fotografia a sostegno del pianeta
  • © Mario Vidor, Riflessi sull’acqua
  • © Autore sconosciuto, 1a edizione Portfolio in Piazza, 18 – 19 luglio 1992, Luce in Archivio. Percorsi visivi dai cataloghi fotografici di Palazzo Vendemini
  • © Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Grand Canyon, Arizona, 1995, Uguale ma diverso. Same But Different
  • © Giulia Gatti, Su mia madre tira vento, Premio Marco Pesaresi 2020
  • © Lorenzo Zoppolato, Le immagini di Morel, Premio Portfolio Werther Colonna 2020
  • © Luca Fabbri e Leandro Palanghi, Fashion identikit. Il futuro direttore creativo, uno dei progetti a cura degli studenti e dei docenti dell’Università di Bologna – Campus di Rimini in collaborazione con SI FEST

Dreams, by Elena Givone, makes us think of a difficult future, of hopes and dreams.

In Percorsi al femminile. Uno sguardo sul domani, curated by Alessia Locatelli in collaboration with the Biennale della Fotografia Femminile (Mantua), the authors consider strategic issues for a different and possible world: from nature to landscape, from the generational legacy to forced migration

30×30. Una lunga storia per il nostro futuro, curated by Denis Curti, Roberto Brognara and Mariaelena Forti in collaboration with La Repubblica and Reuters, traces thirty years of events thanks to the front pages of the daily newspaper.

Savignano witnessed the evolution of society through the images.

Luce in Archivio. Percorsi visivi dai cataloghi fotografici di Palazzo Vendemini, curated by Jessica Andreucci and Giuseppe Pazzaglia, is an overview of the first editions of the festival and a tribute to the photographic archive of the Municipality, with its more than 200,000 documents, including historical photographs, images from the contemporary section, photographic campaigns, in addition to the recently acquired collection by the Rimini reporter Marco Pesaresi.

Megastore | Foto © Marco Pesaresi, Si FEST 2021

Networked projects

As pictures are becoming ever more relevant in contemporary society, Savignano and the SI FEST have acquired a well-established tradition in detecting trends in photography.

In this perspective, some moments are relevant to underline the significance of operating as interconnected realities.

So, for instance, the winning images of Reset are the result of the call launched by Sistema Festival Fotografia, made up of five Italian photography festivals – Cortona On The Move, Festival della Fotografia Etica (Lodi), Fotografia Europea (Reggio Emilia), Photolux Festival (Lucca) e SI FEST (Savignano sul Rubicone) – that linked together to create a common platform for cultural planning.

Noteworthy are also the meetings with the mayors of Senigallia and Bibbiena, cities of photography, or the ones with the students and teachers of the Rimini Campus of the University of Bologna (protagonists of Casa UniBO, a project by the Municipality of Savignano sul Rubicone and the University of Bologna on “Photography and fashion”) or the presentation of the Emilia Romagna Photo Valley project, aimed to the mapping and enhancement of photography on the regional territory, promoted by APT Servizi Emilia Romagna.

Riflessi sull'acqua | Foto © Mario Vidor, SI FEST 2021

Collateral events

Alongside the portfolio readings, which allow people to discuss their own works with experts, workshops, too, are an opportunity to interact with photography, which literally permeates Savignano. Dreams, Atelier dei sogni e SI FEST Kids, Il laboratorio dei sogni, for instance. The last one, dedicated to the very young (8-11 years old), invites them to narrate their dreams through collages made of photos, texts and drawings.

Visitors, too, can be portrayed by the Atelier staff: a free snapshot is gifted to them, while the “wall of dreams”, a work in progress gallery of shared dreams, goes on stage.

In Ritratti per SI Fest 30 l’Associazione Cultura e Immagine and Savignano Immagini, propose a photographic census based on portraits taken on film.

The self-portrait as a representation of oneself is the focus of the educational project Dal selfie all’autoritratto (curated by Susanna Venturi and Mario Beltrambini with the Istituto Curie of Savignano) and of the video Me, Myself & I = [We], created by students of the Liceo artistico Amoretti in Imperia. Among the thousand paths (photographic paths, of course) in which to immerse yourself getting pleasantly lost: the Tre sere di dopofestival with DJ sets and live music (with i-Fest), the Spazio LIFE – Libri, fotografia, editoria, an open-air bookshop for those who love photography, My Dear, with the results of the photographic laboratory on goal n. 5 of the UN 2030 Agenda: “achieving gender equality”.

There are also Polaroiders on tour, a collective exhibition by 20 Italian instant artists, narrating an amazing future through the white frame of a Polaroid, workshops and Polawalks, not forgetting the SI FEST OFF 2021.

SI FEST is an initiative of the Comune di Savignano sul Rubicone, created by the Associazione Savignano Immagini, promoted by the Regione Emilia-Romagna, with the patronage of the Comune di Rimini, in collaboration with the Dipartimento delle Arti – Università di Bologna.

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