📸 Between 1945 and 1976, more than 12,000 Italian women married by proxy. “The Stand-in Groom” tells the incredible story of Mina, who in 1961, determined to marry before joining her future husband Dario in Eritrea, celebrated the wedding with Franco, Dario’s friend, as the stand-in groom. This exhibition pays tribute to Mina’s resolve, celebrating the hidden yet profound stories found in family photographs.
👤Dutch artist, curator, and designer Erik Kessels (
@erik.kessels ) explores vernacular photography and contemporary visual culture with irony and depth. Founder of the creative agency KesselsKramer, he has published over 100 books of “re-appropriated” images and curated international exhibitions such as “Album Beauty” and “24HRS in Photos”. Dubbed a “visual sorcerer” by Time Magazine and a “Modern Anthropologist” by Vogue Italia, his work challenges and celebrates the imperfect nature of amateur photography.
👤PetriPaselli (
@petripaselli ) is a Bologna-based artistic duo formed by Luciano Paselli (1983) and Matteo Petri (1981). Their work is deeply rooted in the realm of childhood and collective memory, enriched by an aesthetic that highlights objects in their purest, tangible form. The act of collecting, initially private and domestic, progressively evolves into a collective and popular practice, thus becoming the vibrant core of their aesthetic and conceptual exploration. This approach consistently produces visual and semantic short circuits, resulting in works full of unexpected meanings.