Ramak Fazel | Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
Viasaterna is pleased to announce the participation of Ramak Fazel in the seminar Photography between Artwork and Document. Archives, the photography complex, and women’s history, held at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. A day of study and discussion dedicated to the relationship between photography, archives, and memory-building practices.
The morning session, entitled Rethinking Photography through Ramak Fazel’s Milan Unit, aims to foster a dialogue on the archival and cataloguing standards currently applied to photography, questioning their underlying assumptions in light of artistic practices that challenge traditional distinctions between artwork, document, and archive.
The discussion will open with a reflection on Ramak Fazel’s work Milan Unit (1994–2009), which reconstructs the photographer’s studio during his stay in Milan. The ensemble includes contact sheets, prints, administrative documents, notes, as well as shelving, ornaments, and containers—material elements of the working environment that reflect its everyday and productive dimension. Preserved in fluorescent green modules, the archive—transformed into an artwork and recently acquired by MAXXI—takes shape as an exhibition device and, at the same time, as a critical object that invites a rethinking of photographic work in its processual dimension and of the systems of classification that govern its memory. The round table will continue with contributions by Simona Antonacci (MAXXI Architecture and Contemporary Design, Rome), Annalisa Rossi (Director, Ministry of Culture), and Alessandro Coco (National Photographic Cabinet, ICCD).
Free entry
January 30th 2026
at 10 am - 5 pm
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
CIB - Centro Internazionale di Brera
Via Formentini 10 – Milano
The morning session, entitled Rethinking Photography through Ramak Fazel’s Milan Unit, aims to foster a dialogue on the archival and cataloguing standards currently applied to photography, questioning their underlying assumptions in light of artistic practices that challenge traditional distinctions between artwork, document, and archive.
The discussion will open with a reflection on Ramak Fazel’s work Milan Unit (1994–2009), which reconstructs the photographer’s studio during his stay in Milan. The ensemble includes contact sheets, prints, administrative documents, notes, as well as shelving, ornaments, and containers—material elements of the working environment that reflect its everyday and productive dimension. Preserved in fluorescent green modules, the archive—transformed into an artwork and recently acquired by MAXXI—takes shape as an exhibition device and, at the same time, as a critical object that invites a rethinking of photographic work in its processual dimension and of the systems of classification that govern its memory. The round table will continue with contributions by Simona Antonacci (MAXXI Architecture and Contemporary Design, Rome), Annalisa Rossi (Director, Ministry of Culture), and Alessandro Coco (National Photographic Cabinet, ICCD).
Free entry
January 30th 2026
at 10 am - 5 pm
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
CIB - Centro Internazionale di Brera
Via Formentini 10 – Milano