Reframing photography and the reality beyond the surface: a preview of EXPOSED

The second edition of EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival reflects a growing need for deeper engagement with and understanding of photoculture

The notion of embedded, invisible forces within photographs is both visceral and conceptual – shaped by the social, political, and infrastructural histories that have informed the medium’s evolution. Photography, as a fundamentally relational form, hinges on the dynamic between photographer, camera, subject, and viewer. It is a complex system that navigates the personal and the collective, playing a crucial role in shaping how we see the world and our place within it. The 2025 EXPOSED edition, titled “Beneath the Surface,” investigates how the material world intersects with the unseen forces that shape our lives. Materials are not inert – they shift, adapt, and respond to broader systems like nature, politics, and technology. By tracing how these materials change, we begin to unearth the narratives they carry – stories of power, control, resistance, and resilience. In a world often dominated by abstraction and overload, turning our attention to the tangible can offer clarity, grounding us in the very forces that affect our everyday realities.

The second edition of EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival runs from April 16 to June 2, 2025, organized by Fondazione per la Cultura Torino under the artistic direction of Menno Liauw and Salvatore Vitale, both artistic directors at FUTURES. With the FUTURES ethos more deeply woven into its structure than ever before, this year’s festival builds upon the previous edition’s theme, “New Landscapes”, and pushes it further.

FUTURES is a Europe-based photography platform that unites the global photography community to support the professional growth of emerging artists worldwide.

Highlights from EXPOSED programme

“Beneath the Surface”, presents a rich and expansive program of exhibitions, talks, and events across Turin, investigating the hidden systems – social, ecological, technological – that shape contemporary life. The festival brings together international artists whose works interrogate reality, representation, and the unseen forces underlying the visible world. Among the featured exhibitions is “Not Bad Intentions: Attempts to Coexist” by Sheng-Wen Lo at the Archivio di Stato di Torino, which explores human and non-human relations, challenging anthropocentric narratives and prompting reflection on sustainability and ethical coexistence. At the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, Lisa Barnard’s “Running Fast – Senses Off” delves into the psychological and sensory effects of modern warfare and technology, while Valeria Cherchi’s “RE:Birth” confronts obstetric and gynecological violence, offering a powerful critique of systemic trauma in reproductive care. Also at the Accademia, Silvia Rosi’s “Disintegrata” presents a deeply personal yet universally resonant exploration of migration, memory, and identity through her family's diasporic history.

“To Be In and Out of the World”, presented at the Archivio di Stato Torino challenges binary distinctions of home and away, presenting a visual politics of post-colonial dispossession across Hong Kong/China, Palestine/Israel, and South Africa through the works of Tiffany Sia, Ahlam Shibli, and Nolan Oswald Dennis. At its conceptual center is Dennis’ diagrammatic “Black consciousness of space,” a reimagining of land, memory, and statecraft. Shibli contrasts the conditionally recognized migrant worker in Germany with the socially erased Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, revealing the instability of existence within and beyond state structures. Sia disrupts demands for narrative legibility, using the gaze of a child to evoke a poetics of displacement and state erasure. Together, the works offer layered reflections on visibility, power, and belonging in contested spaces.

At OGR Torino, the group show “Almost Real. From Trace to Simulation” questions the boundaries between authenticity and artifice in image-making, addressing the rise of simulation technologies and their impact on perception through the works of Alan Butler, Nora Al-Badri, and Lawrence Lek. River Claure’s “Once Upon a Time in the Jungle”, exhibited at GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, blends myth and reality to reflect on shifting narratives of nature, colonialism, and representation. Paolo Cirio’s “Climate Tribunal” at Palazzo Carignano turns attention to environmental justice, staging a speculative courtroom to hold ecological perpetrators accountable and exposing the complexities of climate governance.

These exhibitions are complemented by a dynamic talks programme at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, bringing together artists, curators, and thinkers to engage critically with the issues raised across the festival. Discussions range from technological mediation and ecological futures to decolonial strategies and ethics of visual culture.

Photomatch: a reimagined format for portfolio reviews

In addition to its exhibitions and talks, EXPOSED presents Photomatch, an inclusive, reimagined format for portfolio reviews that prioritizes mutual exchange between photographers and experts. Moving beyond traditional hierarchies, Photomatch fosters dialogue, accessibility, and community-building within the photographic field. A curated group of emerging photographers is invited to participate in one-to-one meetings with practitioners and professionals from the FUTURES network and the local Turin and Italian photography community.