2023 YOUTH
GORDOLA AND SONOGNO

Event photographer: Florian Spring

2022 BREATHING HOUSES
BRIONE VERZASCA

Exhibiting artists
4Plus (Armenia)
Aline D’Auria (Switzerland)
Dina Oganova (Georgia)
Julia Fullerton-Batten (Germany/UK)
Marie-Pierre Cravedi (France/CH)
Natela Grigalashvili (Georgia)
Rebecca Bowring (UK)
Roxana Savin (Romania)
Stephen Kelly (UK/Switzerland)

Nera di Verzasca Prize
Tomasz Kawecki (Poland)

Artists-in-residence
Anita Khemka & Imran Kokiloo (India)
Belhassen Handous (Tunisia)
He Bo (China)
Jake Niemiec (USA)
Lisa Lurati (Switzerland)
Maryna Shtanko (Ukraine)
Victor Zea (Peru)

The house is a perimeter: it defines the space in which we live. In distant times, during the night our ancestors gathered around a fire, whose flames drew the boundary between the warmth and light and the darkness. In this flickering and evanescent boundary lies perhaps the core of the first idea of home.

With the construction of walls and separations, that idea took on a concrete shape: from the fire, the hearth. In the rural homes of the Verzasca Valley, the hearth is called “cà da föch”: the home of the fire. In this home within the home, between the stone walls darkened by smoke, is where life took place: here people gathered, cooked, ate, talked, and worked.

The same still happens today in shacks, apartment buildings, mansions, tents, huts, and caravans: the months of the pandemic showed us that the essential gestures of living are similar for all of us and that they unite us. During those months, a feeling that seemed extinct has reemerged: the archaic fear of what is outside the home, in the darkness beyond the fire. All of a sudden, we started sensing again the perimeter in which we live.

This year, Verzasca Foto Festival explores houses and the people who live in them. We will tell stories of houses in the pipeline or in ruins, of homeless people and peopleless homes. Of nomadic houses and houses rooted in their territory. Of homes that are the reflection of those who inhabit them and of people who are the reflection of their homes.

In Gordola, at the foot of the valley, an old villa destined for demolition will house the artist-in-residence’s exhibition, inaugurating the project of Casa della fotografia (House of Photography) in Ticino.

For the second year in a row, the main activities and the outdoor exhibitions will take place in Brione Verzasca. Among stone walls, narrows, and squares, the houses photographed by international artists will interact with the stone houses of the village. Their dialogue will reveal the constants of living around the world, but it will also show how every space welcomes, isolates, frees, and breathes in its own way.

2021 MATTERS OF TOUCH
BRIONE VERZASCA

Exhibiting artists
Edgar Martins (Portugal)
Victoria Viprada Balaban (Moldavia/Romania)
Mathilda Olmi (Switzerland)
Kim da Motta (Switzerland)
Andrea Camiolo e Arianna Zanetti (Italy)
Bas Losekoot (Netherlands)
Hiro Tanaka (Japan)
Renée Jacobs (USA)
Federico Frangi (Argentina)
Cemre Yesil (Turkey)
Kelly-Ann Bobb (Trinidad & Tobago)
Sarah Mei Herman (Netherlands)
Red Rubber Road (Switzerland)
Joanna Wierzbicka and Alessandro Simon (Poland/Italy)
Nicolas Polli (Switzerland)
Nathalie Vigini (Switzerland)
Silvia De Giorgi (Italy)

Residenze Artistiche
Farside Collective (India)
Oksana Yushko (Russia)
Omnia Sabry (Egypt)
Zhen Shi (China)

Verzasca Foto Awards
Nicola Bertasi (Italy)

Event Photographer: Marta Panzeri

Ever since ancient times, touch has been considered the least deceptive of our senses and the most certain: only what we touch exists, only what touches us exists. It is when closing our eyes that we discover the importance of this perception.

Touch implies a particular form of mutuality: we cannot touch without being touched and maybe, just for this reason, touching helps us connect to other humans and the surrounding elements. Through gestures such as caressing, holding hands and hugging we can communicate, comfort and support while creating and sharing mutual well-being.

During the past two years, the pandemic has rendered touch taboo. The imposition of social distancing forced us to translate our interactions into digital form, and our fear of the disease has transformed our hands into something to dread and avoid. Yet, a form of touch starvation was already underway amongst people, fostered precisely by technology and social networks.

This year, with an edition dedicated to touch, we want to show, through the images of national and international photographers, the importance of physical exchange and the connection between human beings.

Verzasca Foto Festival 2021 brings along another important change: after seven editions in Sonogno, for the first time the festival will be held in Brione Verzasca. The meetings, lectures and night projections will take place at Castello Marcacci, while the exhibits will be displayed through the woods of the village.

Once again, we want to connect photographers and visitors to the territory and the people who inhabit it. Through meetings, convivial moments and outdoor exhibitions which interact with nature and the architecture of the stone villages, visitors will be able to explore the area in synergy with the works, artists and locals, in an intimate and informal dialogue.

2020 OF MEN AND WOODS
SONOGNO, VALLE VERZASCA

Exhibiting artists
Aggelos Barai (Albania)
Agnieszka Gotowala (Poland)
Alexandra Baumgartner (Switzerland)
Andrea Basileo (Switzerland)
Anton Polyakov (Moldova /Transnistria)
Christopher de Béthune (Belgium)
Diego Moreno (Mexico)
Elly Heise (Canada)
Filippo Valoti Alebardi (Italy/Russia)
Florence Goupil (Peru)
Giorgio Negro (Switzerland)
Graziella Antonini (Switzerland)
Joan Alvado (Spain)
Luca Zanetti (Switzerland)
Olivia Heussler (Switzerland)
Oskar Alvarado (Spain)
Pablo Chaco (Colombia)
Paz Olivares Droguett (Chile)
Tomaso Clavarino (Italy)
Tomasz Fall (Switzerland)
Yorgos Yatromanolakis (Greece)

Artist in Residence
Florian Spring (Switzerland)

Winner Verzasca Foto Award
Uygar Onder Simsek

Event Photographer: Samuel Rubio

There are many forms of interacting with the woods, either by making it your source of livelihood, by exploiting it or just to get pleasure out of it. Human beings are the only species on the planet that destroys and then recreates woods, altering their nature.

However, these fast-paced alterations and the uncontrolled invasion of the environment lead to consequences, which sooner or later are going to affect all living beings. Because of the deterioration, the indifference and the neglect of their own home, human beings are now faced with the consequences caused by the environmental decay, which is now making them, the culprits, sick.

The forests that have lost their primary state, if used and cared for in a respectful and balanced way, allow the coexistence with inhabited areas, which are necessary for the survival of a rural society and culture.

The valley where the Verzasca Foto Festival takes place is covered in thick woods. Not long ago, trees were the primary form of livelihood for the inhabitants of these mountains, from the roots growing on the hillsides and the cut trunks floating down the rivers to the ashes that their ancestors collected in the chimney of the city.

Nowadays, the global awareness regarding the importance of preserving forests and sowing new trees is the response to the swift to the current climate emergency. Today as yesterday, we are the ones who need the forests, not the other way around.

Once again, in occasion of the seventh edition of the festival, we wish to reiterate our goal. Through outdoor exhibitions immersed in nature, we aim to bring together people who have had different views and different experiences in the woods. This event has always sought interaction with the territory and the people who inhabit it. A community that lives surrounded by the forest, which uses it and cares for it, establishing a harmonious coexistence. A place where the works of photographers from all over the world blend gently with it for a season.

In the small stone villages surrounded by beeches, chestnut and larch trees, the explorer-visitor can experience the mountains through art and nature, together with photographers, enthusiasts and the local community. Their experience will be accompanied by meetings in a convivial environment, group exhibitions, round tables, live music and audio-visual projections.

The forest can be a place of solitude but also a vital meeting place. Underground, the roots of different trees unite, communicating and feeding each other. We want the same to happen above it, through the confluence of people from different cultures and sensibilities.

(Due to the covid19 situation in this edition we could host fewer guests as usual. We are happy that despite the limitations we could organize events and exhibition visits by splitting our guests in small groups. All activities have taken place outdoors)

2019 IN CAMMINO
SONOGNO, VALLE VERZASCA

Exhibiting artists
Elena Anosova (RU)
Isabelle Blanc (CH)
Thomas Brasey (CH)
Cesar Dezfuli (ES)
Andrea Ebener (CH)
Mohamed Keita (CI)
Yann Laubscher (CH)
Lisa Lurati (CH)
Alessia Olivieri (CH)
Ayline Olukman (FR)
Alessia Rollo (IT)
Carlo Rusca (CH)
Arianna Sanesi (IT)
Maria Sturm (RO)
Roberto Tondopo (MX)
Diego Vidart (UY)
Marylise Vigneau (FR)
Thomas Weisskopf (CH)
Christian Werner (DE)
Patrick Wichert (GB)
Ruben Wyttenbach (CH)
Luca Zanetti (CH)

Artist in Residence
Halik Azeez (LK)
Olga Cafiero (CH)
Malika Sqalli (MA)
Jin Zhang (CN)

Winner Verzasca Foto Award
Ana Zibelnik (SI)

Event Photographer: Chiara Marazzi
Other pictures: Pietro Tafaro, Nathalie Vigini, Alfio Tommasini

To walk is to fulfill a need, to have fun, to reflect and to observe. Sometimes you’re going somewhere, sometimes you’re going nowhere. In the dictionary, the verb “to walk” is defined as the act of moving—on foot—from one place to another.

Walking has two dynamism: the first one—physical—allows humans to move and explore, and the second one—meta- physical—brings them to a dimension of reflection and contemplation about space and time. To walk can be both physical and metaphysical at the same time.

Walking can be enjoyable and liberating (a nice stroll) or it can be necessary and vital (the escape to freedom and a better future). Walking—even when you get lost—feeds our sensibility and broadens our horizons: it allows us to get to know our surroundings, the people who inhabit it and ourselves. Along the way you might meet a vast array of people and places, each and every one of them with their own store of knowledge, emotions and beauty. Any of them can become a source of inspiration and impetus, which are essential to the creative process.

We all have been on our own paths and still are. This year the Verzasca Foto Festival aims to act as a crossroads for all the paths we’ve walked on, are walking on and will walk on in the future. This edition is dedicated to people in movement and the festival will become a place of inter- action and integration where we can share our stories and discover those of others thanks to the participation of photographers from all around the world. At the Verzasca Foto Festival photography is the pretext and the theme of reflection.

Other than its blacktop road, the Valle Verzasca also has a lot of known paths as well as still unexplored ones. We invite all of you to go ahead and walk along these paths, following your own rhythm, sensibility and curiosity. We also invite photographers, fans of the festival and everyone who’s passionate about photography to spend some of their time in Sonogno sharing moments and experiences. While you’re here, discover stories from far away as well as closer ones through our outdoors exhibitions, round tables, meeting points and the suggestive and immersive presentations and projections by talented photographers.

2018 THE INNER FOREST
SONOGNO-FRASCO-LAVERTEZZO, VALLE VERZASCA

Exhibiting artists
Roshan Adhihetty (CH)
Teo Becher (FR)
Nathalie Bissig (CH)
Andrea Eichenberger (BR-CH)
Farzin Foroutan (IR)
Kasia Jackowska (PL-CH)
Claire Laude (DE-FR)
Eva Lauterlein (CH)
Brigitte Lustenberger (CH)
Derek Man (UK)
Emilio Nasser (AR)
Zuzana Pustaiová (SK)
Massimiliano Rossetto (CH)
SooS Chronicles (IT)
Gihan Tubbeh (PE)
Javier Medina Verdolini (PY)
Cecilia Vidal (UY)
David Wagnières (CH)
Jagoda Wisniewska (PL-CH)
Tomas Wüthrich (CH)

Artist in Residence
Mai Al Shazly (EG)
Camila Rodrigo (PE)

Winner Verzasca Foto Award
Ilana Bar (BR)

Event Photographer: Pietro Tafaro
Other pictures: Chiara Marazzi, Nathalie Vigini, Alfio Tommasini

The Inner Forest is the theme of the fifth Verzasca Foto Festival. The projects showcased in the outdoor exhibitions are in dialogue with the surrounding territory and reflect one of the festival’s core visions: nature perceived as a source of creative stimulus. Walking and roaming through the forest, immersed in a primordial and free universe, we can draw inspiration along the way.

The forest explorers are twenty local and international artists. Through a variety of sensitivities and expressions, they provide a cross section of contemporary photographic research, ranging from new documentarism to lyrical, ironical, or conceptual narrative. Their works represent both images of the exterior and the interior nature, crystallizations of different awarenesses grown in diverse contexts, that convey a cosmopolitan breath.

The authors of the works selected for the outdoor shows conceive the forest—in its multiple dimensions: physical, metaphysical, and experiential—as a territory to explore. Objective and subjective dimensions speak about what surrounds us, but also about what we feel, opening the way to introspection and artistic reflection.

Activities like nocturnal projections in the grottos and piazzas of the Verzasca Valley, workshops, round tables, concerts, walks, and exhibition openings in the woods round up the program, offering informal networking opportunities with the local population and artists from all over the globe.

The Verzasca Foto Festival is set in a genuinely natural environment, a place of peace in the mountains that stimulates the interaction between people who are curious to move, seek, discover.

2017 ARGINI
SONOGNO, VALLE VERZASCA

Exhibiting artists
Adriane Ohanesian (USA)
Arguiñe Escandón (ESP)
Arunà Canevascini (CH)
Bill McCullough (USA)
Camilla de Maffei (ITA)
Ettore Moni (ITA)
Federico Estol (UY)
Giles Clarke (USA)
Madoka Ikegami (JAP)
Maëlle Grand Bossi (CH)
Mariela Sancari (ARG-MEX)
Nicolas Janowski (ARG)
Pierre Emmanuel Fehr (CH)
Ronan Guillou (FRA)
Salvatore Vitale (CH-ITA)
Stephanie Buret (CH)
Tommaso Rada (ITA)
Victoria Harriague (ARG)
Yoko Ishii (JAP)

Artist in Residence
Gayatri Ganju (IND)
Jessica Wolfelsperger (CH)
Jorge Panchoaga (COL)

Winner Verzasca Foto Award
Estrella Herrera (ARG)

Event Photographer: Elena Vaninetti
Other pictures: Alfio Tommasini (ph.1/ph.21/ph.24), Mariela Sancari (ph.6)

L’argine è luogo concreto, atto a contenere le piene di corsi d’acqua, ma anche metaforico. L’argine è segno, col preciso compito di contenere, rinchiudere, stabilire dei limiti. Il paradigma del limite, però, così come gli argini, descrive due dimensioni, quella interna e quella esterna, così un duplice movimento: ripararsi fra gli argini, ma anche romperli e uscirne.

“Argini” è il filo rosso da cui si dipanano i contenuti della quarta edizione del festival di fotografia in Valle Verzasca, nonché fertile flusso tematico della mostra en plein air, peculiarità della manifestazione. Gli argini sono quelli fisici del fiume Verzasca, che contengono e indirizzano l’andare del corso d’acqua. Gli argini possono essere naturali o artificiali creazioni umane; sono fisici e metafisici, psicologici, sociologici e filosofici. Queste sono le molteplici dimensioni del concetto che gli organizzatori hanno scelto per l’edizione 2017, un contenitore senza limiti di riflessione, che rende tangibile la costrizione del limite dell’argine, così come la sua assenza e anche la sospensione fra l’una e l’altra condizione.

+ 1% PRIVILEGE IN A TIME OF GLOBAL INEQUALITY, EXHIBITION IN SONOGNO