Presenting Food: a new exciting edition of Foto/Industria, the Biennial of Photography on Industry and Work organized by the MAST Foundation in Bologna, in its second edition curated by Fantom’s associate Francesco Zanot. Running through 28 November 2021.

Foto/Industria 2021 is dedicated to FOOD, a theme of fundamental importance due to its inextricable link to wider questions of philosophy and biology, history and science, politics and economics. Consisting of 10 exhibitions in the historic centre of Bologna, and Ando Gilardi’s retrospective at Fondazione MAST, the biennial offers a journey that develops as part of a timeless, yet topical subject, given the rapid developments in a sector currently responding to the most important global transformations: demographics, climate change and sustainability. Photography and gastronomy merge from theory to practice, triggering a series of reflections on the complexity of the “food theme”. Some of the overarching topics discussed throughout the 11 exhibitions of Foto/Industria, which retrace a century of history from the 1920s to today, include: the food industry and its impact on landscape; the relationship between nutrition and geography; the mechanisation of cultivation and farming; the issue of grain; organic nutrition; markets and local traditions; fishing at sea and in rivers.

Artists: Hand Finsler, Ando Gilardi, Jan Groover, Mishka Henner, Takashi Homma, Herbert List, Maurizio Montagna, Bernard Plossu, Vivien Sansour, Lorenzo Vitturi, Henk Wildschut.

“The ways in which food is produced, distributed, sold, bought and consumed are constantly changing, yet they always encapsulate certain distinctive features of any era, historical period, or cultural and social milieu. Like photography, food is a language that incorporates and disseminates messages. The result is a short circuit: any image of food is the outcome of a process of remediation. Moreover, photography and food are both closely linked to technology. Photography was born as a technique. Darkrooms, films, and lenses are achievements of human ingenuity that were put in service of science, art, memory, and the transmission of information. As far as food is concerned, the turning point is the appearance of agriculture, which leads from nomadism to permanent settlements and farming through a series of radical technical innovations.” Francesco Zanot

Foto/Industria 2021 is accompanied by a beautiful publication produced by MAST in collaboration with Bruno Ceschel (Self Publish Be Happy), which blends the worlds of photography and cuisine in the form of of a photo and cook book conceived by chef and writer Tommaso Melilli, who interprets the images and themes of each exhibition as an original dish.

Foto/Industria 2021
FOOD
Curated by Francesco Zanot 
14 October – 28 November 2021
A project by MAST Foundation
www.fotoindustria.it