2019 Curators

Spanning Milan and New York, Fantom is a non-profit association created to explore how photography, sound and the visual arts interweave. Founded in 2009 by Selva Barni, Fantom initially published a quarterly photographic magazine and a series of photobooks. In 2012, the group discontinued the magazine, becoming a collective designing and staging exhibitions, performances as well as editorial and sound projects. Their work includes exhibitions, installations and performances with Batia Suter, Brice Dellsperger, Mario Milizia, Maurizio Anzeri, Raed Yassin, Ruth van Beek, Shilpa Gupta, Soundwalk Collective, Taisuke Koyama and Yang Fudong; and the programme of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photo de Fès (Morocco, 2014). From 2015 to 2017, Fantom curated the programme of the Milan art gallery Viasaterna, organizing the solo shows of Guido Guidi, Lorenzo Vitturi, Mario Milizia, Takashi Homma, and Theo Drebbel, along with a series of double solo and group shows, among which 2016: On New Italian Photography. Between 2016 and 2018, Fantom coordinated the production and roll-out of a cycle of exhibitions commissioned by the Municipality of Milan and produced by the Alcantara company in the city’s Royal Palace: The King and I; Fantasy Access Code and Nine Journeys Through Time. In the summer of 2018, the collective produced Soundwalk Collective’s sound installation Ulysses Syndrome at the Oratorio di Santa Maria del Sabato, Palermo, as part of the official programme of the Manifesta Biennial, subsequently shown at the Petit Palais of the Bardo National Museum, Tunis. Fantom’s project for Arte Fiera 2019 was directed by Selva Barni and Francesco Zanot, with Ilaria Speri and Massimo Torrigiani. 

FANTOM CURATORS PLATFORM