Immigrantopolis is a collective photographic book focused on the presence of immigrants in the urban fabric.
Presentation by Polish researcher Anna Fiń of the Department of Sociology of Culture Pedagogical University of Cracow, curator of the project together with the cultural association dotART.
This will be followed by an award ceremony for the best authors of the project.
Migration, cities and photography
As the history of photography shows, the cityscape and the phenomena occurring in the urban space were topics eagerly tackled by photographers since the beginning of this form of art. However, it was quite rare to combine the subject of the city with a phenomenon of presence of immigrants in urban space and show the interrelations of both phenomena through the photos. Our meeting is devoted to this issues. In other words, we want the recipient to confront the immigrant reality in the urban space and make it more familiar to him. The meeting is designed to present the main highlights of the "Immigrantopolis" project, pays attention to the subject of presence of immigrants in urban space as well as to give a closer look at the short presentation of achievements of migration photography. We will be talk not only about a city but also about unique actors of the urban scene – immigrants. This will be a story – with all its nuances – about the immigrant urban life – embedded in pictures.
Concept
In the first half of the XX century, Andreas Feininger, the photographer known as “the architect of the picture”, while wandering the streets of Lower Manhattan, managed to grasp a daily life of immigrants who were concentrated in the area, attempting to build their own communities. Immigrant enclaves – just like a skyscrapers – entered the New York’s landscape, becoming an urban phenomenon. Following Feininger’s footsteps, we have created the Photography Project Immigrantopolis. Immigrants have long been the actors of the urban scene. In general: they settle mainly in cities, they build their own ethnic communities in these cities, they create ethnic infrastructure in urban space, they enter into the urban landscape, transforming it constantly, and finally becoming a part of local/urban collective memory. Immigrants create history and contemporary social reality of the cities. It is impossible to delineate and capture the image of the contemporary city without capturing its immigrants contexts.
The Immigrantopolis Project aims at visualizing the existence and presence of immigrants in urban space. The project also a part of attempts to find new ways of exhibiting and discussing the present and the future of immigrants as an urban phenomenon.
The project is designed as a collaborative endeavor of scholars, curators, photographers and is hosted by dotART, a Trieste (Italy) based cultural association, with the substantive support of Anna Fiń from The Department of Sociology of Culture Pedagogical University in Krakow, Poland.
Immigrantopolis Authors
Alba Papandrea, Alexander Pfeiffer, Andrey Pronin, Antonino Clemenza, Beppe Castellani, Carlo Barberio, Carlo Silva, Christine Osinski, Claudia Bouvier Calderone, Daniel Hoffman, Daniele Dipaola, Daniele Ficarelli, Eric Davidove, Eugenio Novajra, Fabrizio Liuzzi, Federico Wilhelm, Foughali Meryem, Gerry Atkinson, Gianluca Aggi, Giorgio Galli, Giorgio Martinale, Giuliana Conte, Graziano Perotti, Guido Caltabiano, Hormoz, Ignasi Raventos, Iwona Biedermann, Javier Céspedes, Jeannette Muller, Jim Gielier, John Sevigny, Juan Carlos Marzi, Judi Bommarito, Larry Silver, Lucilla Loiotile, Luigi Avantaggiato, Marco Biancardi, Maria Pansini, Mariolino Laudati, Maryna Kornilevska, Massimo Tabasso, Mattia Vacca, Michele Andreossi, Michele Cirillo, Michele Ginevra, Michele Paggetta, Miyuki Okuyama, Nadezhda Ermakova, Nathanael Fournier, Never Edit, Nino Evola, Ogulcan Arslan, Paola Fiorini, Pericles Loucopoulos, Rachel Harpaz, Riccardo Moretti, Roberto Gregori, Ross J. Deane, Rossella Giacomelli, Sara Fusini, Serge Bouvet, Shahab Naseri, Simon Beraud, Stefanos Chronis, Stepan Rudik, Tahir Ün, Tobia Marengo, Tomasz Ćwiertnia, Valentina Bollea, Valeria Ferraro, Zoltan Toth.
