FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2025
“BEING TWENTY”

Reggio Emilia
24 April – 8 June 2025

Preview 24 April
Opening events from 24 to 27 April 2025

The 20th edition of the Reggio Emilia festival is dedicating its exhibitions to a time of life when the possibilities seem endless.

Chiostri di San Pietro, Palazzo da Mosto, Palazzo dei Musei, Biblioteca Panizzi, Spazio Gerra and the Circuito OFF venues will play host to exhibitions by both the greats of photography and emerging talents

From 24 April to 8 June 2025, Reggio Emilia will yet again examine changes in contemporary society through the eyes of the greats of photography and emerging talents with the 20th edition of FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA, the festival organised and promoted by Fondazione Palazzo Magnani and the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region.

“BEING TWENTY” is the theme chosen by the festival’s artistic directors Tim Clark (editor of 1000 Words), Walter Guadagnini (photography historian and director of CAMERA - Centro Italiano per la Fotografia) and Luce Lebart (researcher and curator, Archive of Modern Conflict).

How many times, as adults, do we say “if only I was twenty again”? A phrase, an expression that, in an ideal world, would free us from the responsibilities and burdens of being grown-ups and take us back to a time bathed by the waters and lightness of youth, when everything was still a wonderful possibility and the future was just waiting to be written.

But what does it mean to young people today to be twenty? Twenty is an age of contradictions; twenty-year-olds are adults, but often still live at home with their parents; they are connected to the whole world, but the loneliness can be overwhelming. They face huge expectations, both personal and social: finding a fulfilling job, building meaningful relationships, giving a sense to their own existence, and imagining a better world, for themselves and others.

This year, Fotografia Europea wanted to follow this path, walk part of the way alongside the young people of Generation Z, who have grown up at a time when technological progress has opened up infinite possibilities, but also unprecedented crises to be tackled, individually and collectively. This generation is rediscovering the importance and need to fight for their rights and for a more equitable future.

The projects chosen examine this and much more besides, drawing attention to stories that may be new and unusual but are also bursting with that boundless vital energy that makes you believe, at least once in your life, that you can change the world.

The fourth edition of the FE+SK Book Award has just reached its conclusion; the prize dedicated to photographic books was founded by Fotografia Europea in partnership with Skinnerboox, a publishing house based in Jesi (Ancona) that specialises in contemporary photography. From over two hundred entrants, the jury consisting of Chiara Capodici, Tim Clark and Milo Montelli, chose Iacopo Papucci’s project The Attachment Theory, explaining that his work particularly struck them.

As it does every year, the Festival also draws on a calendar packed with events for visitors spanning from the opening days – 24, 25, 26 and 27 April – to 8 June: lectures, meetings with the artists, book presentations and signings, portfolio reviews, workshops, a book fair dedicated to independent publishers, and shows. These events have all been designed to fuel cultural debate; taking photography as its starting point, they tackle more general themes, involving an increasingly large and diverse public, aware that Reggio Emilia offers the best that contemporary photography produces and offers.

In addition to meetings with the artists, the programme also offers opportunities for discussion, such as the events on 26 April, entitled “Scrivere a vent’anni” (Writing at Twenty) with the writers Silvia Ballestra and Andrea Canobbio, and 27 April, entitled “Il dolore dei ventenni” (The Pain of Being Twenty) with the editor and writer Giulia Caminito, both in dialogue with Loredana Lipperini.
Not to be missed is the 'Simply Frida on tour', scheduled for the evening of 26 April, in which pianist Frida Bollani Magoni, flanked by renowned musician Mark Glentworth, will be in dialogue with rapper and record producer Frankie hi-nrg mc at the Teatro Cavallerizza. The meeting will be hosted by Nicolas Ballario.

This edition also continues the festival’s focus on younger visitors, with special guided tours and a broad programme of EDUCATIONAL EVENTS; from the opening weekend until mid-June, a number of events and workshops will aim to open up the festival’s varied programme to children and young people, in addition to an exhibition map designed especially for them and family workshops, as well as training sessions for adults.

The CIRCUITO OFF – the collective and independent event that supplements the festival with an endless series of exhibitions spread around the city – presents professional photography projects alongside young, novice photographers, enthusiasts and associations. Their photographs on the theme “Being Twenty” will be displayed in shops, restaurants, studios, private courtyards and homes, historical venues and art galleries. The OFF@school project, which involves schools across the province of Reggio Emilia, is also part of this circuit. On 4 May an evening event will be dedicated to the Circuito Off, during which the winner of the Premio Max Spreafico award will be announced and given the opportunity to produce a new exhibition to be displayed at Fotografia Europea’s next edition, in 2026.