TURIN.- With the work Deep Green and Tide Series: The Island, Mónica de Miranda (Porto, 1976) wins the first edition of EXPOSED Grant for Contemporary Photography, the call for project on invitation aimed at international artists and organized by EXPOSED. Torino Foto Festival, the new international photography festival of Turin.

The award ceremony took place today, Saturday, November 4th, 2023 at the Gallerie d'Italia in Turin as part of EXPOSED PRELUDE, the calendar of events dedicated to photography lovers made in collaboration with Turin art institutions on the occasion of Artissima.

EXPOSED PRELUDE is an approach path to the first edition of the Festival called New Landscapes - Nuovi Paesaggi that will take place from May 2nd to June 2nd, 2024, under the Art Direction by Menno Liauw and Salvatore Vitale, and wants to tell the new scenarios created by the evolution of contemporary languages and perspectives, by different narratives of the world and landscapes that constitute it.

EXPOSED Grant for Contemporary Photography involved more than forty prominent people in the world of international cultural production, inviting them to nominate two mid-career photographers or with proven artistic research. The participants were invited to present original and long-term photographic projects, in order to have the opportunity of being featured in an exhibition.

The international jury - made by the art directors of the Festival, Menno Liauw and Salvatore Vitale, and by Antonio Carloni, Deputy Director of Gallerie d'Italia Torino, Davide Quadrio, Director of MAO Torino, Kateryna Radchenko, Curator of Odessa Photo Days, Mariama Attah, Associate Curator at the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation - chose the project As if the world had no East by Mónica de Miranda.

"As if the world had no East by Mónica de Miranda impresses with its ambition, intricateness and depth. It redefines our perception of landscapes, history, and memory in Angola. Founded on eco-feminism and Augusto Zita’s research, it aims to create new landscapes through non-Western philosophy, invoking metaphors, capturing the sublime, and promoting environmental awareness. Sourcing from Bantu cosmology and Lusitanian ideographic tradition, it reveals hidden stories, it challenges the conventional vision of the Earth as a mere extraction territory and explores abandoned colonial sites and Bantu tradition to reshape obscured narratives. By using different artistic means, the project analyses the interaction between isolation, landscape and personal connection. In addition, the project refers to the work of Ruy Duarte Carvalho, emphasizing the connection between sacred and geographics spaces and highlighting the importance of recovering lost stories and imagining futures rooted in indigenous cosmogony. This proposal represents a deep exploration of identity, history, and environment. The exceptional quality and beauty of Miranda’s previous exhibitions instill full confidence in the success of the project presentation at EXPOSED 2024."

Mónica de Miranda turned out to be the most deserving candidate among the finalists Mathieu Asselin, Lucas Foglia, Felicity Hammond and Carmen Wynant, and won the prize of 20.000 euros and the opportunity to produce an exhibition for the year 2024 in collaboration with the Festival.

EXPOSED. Torino Foto Festival aims to be a platform for changes taking place in the international photographic panorama and to provide a unique perspective on the history of photography and on potential future scenarios, concretely supporting the production of new photographic projects.

MÓNICA DE MIRANDA (Porto, 1976) is a Portuguese-Angolan visual artist, researcher and filmmaker who explores the intersections among politics, gender, memory, space and history. Working on the boundaries between documentary and fiction, she investigates strategies of resistance and "care ecology" through drawing, installation, photography, cinema and sound. Her works have been exhibited in renowned venues all around the world, just to name a few: FC Gulbenkian, MAAT, Barbican. CAIXA Cultural, Kadist Art Foundation.