When photography changes shape: the focus on Beyond Photography - Dialogue at MIA Photo Fair 2026
- Editorial Staff
- Mar 21
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 22
At MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas, the Beyond Photography - Dialogue section explores the intersections between photography and other artistic languages. A journey that connects technology, materiality, and perception, opening up new ways of interpreting the contemporary image.
Within MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas, Beyond Photography - Dialogue stands out as a space devoted to experimentation and interdisciplinary exchange. Curated by Domenico de Chirico and now in its seventh edition, the section presents a journey in which photography moves beyond its traditional boundaries to engage with installation, sculpture, video, and performance.
Visitors thus find themselves immersed in a journey where the image is no longer just a surface to observe, but becomes an environment, an experience, a narrative. The works on display reflect on the transformations of contemporary visual language, questioning the relationship between the real and the digital, between physical presence and immaterial dimension.
Technology, iconographic memory, and aesthetic research intertwine to create projects that invite viewers to slow down and reflect on the ways we perceive and interpret images today.
Photography beyond the boundaries of the image
The Beyond Photography - Dialogue section is conceived as a visual laboratory where the image expands across space and time. Painting, sculpture, artificial intelligence, and immersive languages become tools to redefine the role of photography in contemporary art.
Among the exhibitors, several galleries present projects that are particularly significant for understanding the current directions of artistic research.
Projects worth observing up close
The Milanese gallery Andrea Zardin presents a solo show dedicated to artist Andrea Crespi, titled Metamorphosis of Beauty. The project explores the transformation of the concept of beauty in the technological era, creating a dialogue between classical archetypes and digital languages.
At the heart of the booth is Butterfly Effect, a holographic work developed in collaboration with the Italian startup TRIA: a luminous and fragile image reflecting on the ephemeral nature of visual perception. The butterfly becomes a symbol of transition and transformation, while the figure of Venus appears in its wings, an archetype that traverses the artist’s imagination and is renewed through digital language. Alongside the installation, the EX HUMAN series presents hyperrealistic portraits of androids and humanoid robots inspired by Neoclassical sculpture, prompting viewers to reflect on the relationship between identity, empathy, and the future of humanity.
At the NM Contemporary gallery booth from Monaco, the dialogue between nature, technology, and image takes shape through the works of Antonio Barbieri, Matteo Basilé and Vincenzo Marsiglia. The three artists create hybrid visions in which advanced technological tools become means to question the perception of reality.
Among the works on display, Antonio Barbieri’s Auryn. Filogenesi di una Chimera combines photography, sculpture, and 3D printing to evoke a symbolic organism born from the fusion of different species. Matteo Basilé’s generative video Theatrum Naturae presents a visionary narrative in which human and landscape transform each other, while Vincenzo Marsiglia uses the Hololens headset to map iconic natural environments, offering a reflection on the relationship between technology and sensory experience (Map Star The World Nature).
A historical perspective on photographic research is offered by ABC-ARTE, which presents a selection of vintage works by Jorrit Tornquist created between the 1970s and 1980s. A key figure in European studies of color, Tornquist uses photography as a tool to investigate light and chromatic variations in space, often intervening manually on the image. The project highlights how photography can function as a theoretical device as well as an expressive medium.
These are just a few of the projects featured in the section, which brings together Italian and international galleries, all united by a shared aim to explore new visual and narrative territories.
Visitor Information
Location: Superstudio Più (Via Tortona 27, Milan, Italy)
Dates: March 19 - 22, 2026
Opening hours: Thursday and Friday 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM | Saturday and Sunday 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Tickets: Purchase your ticket here
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