Presented at Vinitaly the photographic exhibition "Wine. Beyond photography", in collaboration with the School of Visual Arts in New York

Vinitaly 2023

"Wine. Beyond Photography"

Sunday, April 2, Zenato Academy launches its new photographic exhibition
in collaboration with the School of Visual Arts in New York.

The new challenge for Zenato is to contaminate with art the most important place
dedicated to the wine business

"Contaminating with art the most important place dedicated to the wine business" is the challenge Zenato wants to pursue at Vinitaly.

A large area of Zenato's booth is dedicated to setting up the photographic exhibition "Wine. Beyond Photography" by Zenato Academy, an international project with which the Veneto-based company wanted to invest in young people and in that world of culture that is an expression of beauty, creativity and talent.

The project "Wine. Beyond," now in its fourth edition, was born to stimulate new reflections on wine culture, our land, and our culture. A creative workshop in which art education and the world of business enter into dialogue, creating momentum and synergies, relationships and exchanges in a virtuous way.

"An investment in art projects," says Nadia Zenato, "that stems from a desire to value our work and the land in which we operate, to spread beauty and culture, and from a contemporary attitude of engaging in dialogue with fans of our wines, always holding firm to the important role of our brand and the values that our brand wants to represent”.

“The term Beyond is the key word of this project. It suggests a constant expansion of our vision – continues Nadia Zenato – it’s an approach that has always shaped our daily work as winemakers. Our goal has always been to make the highest quality wines and achieve even greater results in the vineyard and in the winery. To that end, we must constantly renew our way of working and our way on thinking. As we moved beyond our geographic borders with this new chapter of the project, we wanted to involve young artists from the other side of the Atlantic in this process of reflection. By exploring what lies beyond the language of photography, they have shown us new visions and new ways of expressing our values and identity”.

"Wine. Beyond Photography" is the fourth stage of the photography project "Wine. Beyond," from Zenato Academy, in collaboration with the BFA photography and video department of SVA - School of Visual Arts in New York City, curated by critic Luca Panaro and artist Marco Scozzaro. The five students from the American school, after a week-long residency at Zenato's premises, were asked to go "beyond photography," freely interpreting the given theme.

Photography itself is the focal point in this new chapter of the project – Luca Panaro explains –. Digital technologies developed in recent years have transformed the art form. But they have also changed the ways we understand it. Today more than ever, photography is free from the clichés of formality and our reliance on the medium. Here, we are not analyzing the different ways we can photograph one subject or another. Instead, the idea is to capture the nature of the medium and to understand the technological and cultural changes happening within it.

Students involved in the project: Kasey Baker, Xuhang Chen, Zheng Ma, Pumipat Usapratumban, Yu - Shan Sammi Wei.

In the first experience students from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts were involved on the theme "Objects," in the second those from the Berlin f/16 photography school on the theme "Landscape," last year those from FMAV - Fondazione Modena Arti Visive on the theme "Portrait."

Starting in May, the exhibition will be set up at the S.Cristina Estate in Peschiera del Garda (VR), and will then participate in Italian and international events and festivals.

Each project includes, in addition to the photographic exhibition, a bilingual Italian/English catalog published by Biblos Edizioni. Graphic design by NSG.