Curated by Mario Calabresi and Francesco Bonami
Every four years, the world follows the long race to the Whitehouse with tense anticipation. Although it is a purely American event, the presidential election is the one political event which influences political and economical fate of the rest of the world to such a profound degree. The American election campaigns are in their specificity largely theatrical, full of strong emotions, and heavily based on premeditated strategy.
Starting from John Fitzgeral Kennedy, the first president to have reached the rest of the world through television, For President retraces the history of the different election campaigns, all having relied on photojournalism, contemporary art and the widespread production of paraphernalia and advertising for the various candidates.
In the spaces of the Fondazione, the artists who were influenced by their own research on the elections mix their work with the iconic images of the agency Magnum, the oldest and most prestigious photography cooperative in the world.
The exhibition also delves into the colourful and fascinating world of propaganda. It includes political demonstrations, the production of paraphernalia of every type and everything from the attempts to promote one's image to the attempts to destroy that of his or her adversary.
Presenting a century of photographs snapped by both anonymous photographers and unquestioned masters of photography, video and installation, For President is the only exhibit entirely dedicated to every aspect of the presidential elections.
