The second edition of the Exposed Torino Foto Festival will take place from April 16th to June 2nd, 2025, with the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti as its central hub. The festival will be a city-wide event, encompassing seven prestigious locations, including the Juvarra halls of the State Archives, Camera - Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Gallerie d'Italia, GAM Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea, OGR, and Palazzo Carignano.
A key novelty for the 2025 edition is the free admission to almost all of the 12 exhibitions, featuring solo and group shows by 16 photographers and artists from around the world. The aim is to offer a comprehensive overview of the latest trends in contemporary photography. While the first edition focused on the surface of reality, this year's theme, "Beneath the Surface," delves into what lies beneath the surface of things, exploring the work of photographers who conduct in-depth research.
The complete program for Exposed 2025 will be announced in the coming weeks. However, some previews have already been revealed. The Accademia Albertina will host the festival's first original production featuring the work of Valeria Cherchi, a young emerging photographer recognized by the British Journal of Photography in 2018 as one of the sixteen emerging talents globally. The Accademia will also showcase the photographs of Silvia Rosi, an Italian-Togolese artist who documents the lives of second-generation African diaspora in Italy.
From Nebraska, the photographs taken between 2005 and 2019 by Gregory Halpern, a Magnum Agency photographer, will be presented. "Omaha Sketchbook" is a narrative of an America suspended between rural and urban realities, housed in the evocative setting of the historical building that houses the Turin Academy.
Gallerie d'Italia, accessible at a special price of €5 (the only exception to the festival's free admission), will host the exhibition "The heart of the matter" by African-American photographer Carrie Mae Weems. A retrospective in collaboration with Aperture Foundation that investigates racial tensions, class and gender differences in the United States. The artist will be in Turin for the opening of Exposed and will inaugurate the installation "Preach," commissioned by Gallerie d'Italia for this exhibition. The work is a reflection on the approach to religion and spirituality of African-American Americans through the generations. The exhibition is curated by Sarah Meister, Executive Director of the Aperture Foundation, formerly curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA).
The festival will cost around €700,000, supported by the City of Turin, the Piedmont Region, the Turin Chamber of Commerce, and institutional partners: Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT, Intesa Sanpaolo, Gallerie d'Italia Torino, in addition to the support of sponsors.
As in the first edition, the festival aims to support young talents and launches a €20,000 grant. In 2024, the winner of the Exposed Grant for Contemporary Photography was Bolivian photographer River Claure. His solo exhibition "Once upon a time in the jungle" will be exhibited at the GAM and will be one of the pieces of the large, widespread festival. At the center is the Amazon and its people: "the imaginary of the American West intertwines with the myth of the 19th-century jungle represented as a desolate land rich in resources to be exploited."