University of Parma

Cristina Casero is contemporary art historian and professor of the History of Photography at the University of Parma. His studies were initially focused on the experiences of World War II Italian figurative culture and nineteenth-century Italian sculpture, with particular interest in the production of visual links with the political, social and civil rights of the 'Italy of the time (Enrico Butti. Un giovane scultore nella Milano di fine Ottocento, Franco Angeli, Milano 2013 and La “scultura sociale”, tra il vero e l'ideale. Realismo e impegno nella plastica lombarda di fine Ottocento, Scripta Edizioni, Verona 2013). On this line are the most recent surveys, over the last forty years of the twentieth century, especially dedicated to the photographic image, in its various meanings. He recently edited with Elena Di Raddo, Anni ’70: l’arte dell’impegno. I nuovi orizzonti culturali, ideologici e sociali nell’arte italiana (Silvana Editore, Cinisello Balsamo 2009) and Anni Settanta. La rivoluzione nei linguaggi dell'arte (Postmedia, Milano 2015); with Michele Guerra, Le immagini tradotte. Usi passaggi trasformazioni (Diabasis, Reggio Emilia 2011). In 2016 she published Paola Mattioli. Lo sguardo critico di una fotografa (PostmediaBooks, Milano) and in 2020, Gesti di rivolta. Arte, fotografia e femminismo a Milano 1975 – 1980, Società per l'Enciclopedia delle Donne, Milano.

Alessandra Acocella is Assistant Professor of History of Contemporary Art and History of Exhibitions at the University of Parma. Her main research interests focus on issues of art and criticism in the second half of the twentieth century, with particular attention to the Italian artistic avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s, the history of exhibitions, art in public spaces and contemporary art archives. She is the author of the monographs Avanguardia diffusa. Luoghi di sperimentazione artistica in Italia 1967-1970 (2016) and Metascritture. Luciano Caruso e Napoli 1963-1976 (2020). She has co-edited, among other volumes, Arte a Firenze 1970-2015. Una città in prospettiva (2016), Lara-Vinca Masini Scritti scelti 1961-2019. Arte, Architettura, Design, Arti applicate (2020) and the two special issues Scritture di immagini. Arti Verbovisuali, dal secondo Novecento a oggi / Image Writing. Verbo-Visual Arts from the Late Twentieth Century to Today for the digital scientific journal “piano b. Arti e culture visive” (2020).

Valentina Rossi is a PhD at the University of Parma, an art historian and a curator. She is currently a research fellow at the University of Parma for the PRIN 2022-2025 "La fotografia femminista italiana. Politiche identitarie e strategie di genere”. She was also a research fellow in 2020-2021 - at the University of Parma - for the project " Mostre virtuali e valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale: il design italiano” and she was awarded with research grant in 2022 at CSAC, Centro Studi Archivio della Comunicazione, University of Parma. She is a graduate of DAMS at the University of Bologna, since 2013 she has been on the editorial staff of the scientific journal Ricerche di S/Confine and since 2012 she has been the curator of the MoRE Museum.  

Over the years she has collaborated with various museum institutions for research projects, publications and exhibitions such as CSAC in Parma, MACRO in Rome, MAXXI in Rome, Arcos in Benevento, MSU in Zagreb and MAMbo in Bologna. In 2019 she is the author of the book Tate Modern. Pratiche espositive (postmedia book, Milano) and she curated the public art project and the book Nouvelles Flâneries (Silvana Editoriale, Milano). In 2021 and 2022 she co-edited the volumes: Hidden Display. Progetti non realizzati a Bologna, 1975-2020 (MAMbo edizioni); Abitolario. L'esistenza enciclopedica dell'abito nel verso linguisticato (Il Poligrafo, Padova); Il rituale del serpente. Animali, simboli e trasformazioni (Danilo Montanari editore, Ravenna); Storie di fili, (Il Poligrafo, Padua), and the proceedings of the conference The Lockdown of the project (Ricerche di S/Confine, University of Parma). In 2023 she will curate a book, with Alessandra Acocella, Anni Novanta: orizzonti creativi tra arti visive, fotografia, moda, design (postmedia book, Milano).  

Her studies mainly focus on contemporary art, photography, fashion, museology, curatorial practices, and digital humanities.

Irene Boyer is a PhD in Art History (Sapienza University of Rome). She is currently a research fellow at the University of Parma for the PRIN 2022-2025 "La fotografia femminista italiana. Identity policies and gender strategies" and external collaborator for the course of Contemporary Art History at the University of Milan. At the latter she was a fellow of the School of Specialization in Historical and Artistic Heritage. From 2015 to 2019 she collaborated with the Museo del Novecento in Milan for which she was also a contract cataloguer. 

Archival research is her method of study, in the interweaving of work and document, between philological recognition and critical-theoretical considerations. Her studies and contributions (essays in magazines and volumes) initially focused on criticism and artistic dissemination between the two World War (with particular regard to the years of Fascism). More recently her attention is focused on the events of the Seventies, especially the reality of art galleries in the Milan area and video art of the origins in Italy (in particular the role that Luciano Giaccari had with his Studio 970 2 in Varese).

Beatrice De Francesco is a doctoral candidate in Contemporary Art History at the University of Parma (cycle XXXVII, tutor Prof. Cristina Casero). Her research, based mainly on archival sources, focuses on the artistic commissions of the Duchess Louise Marie Thérèse de Bourbon-France during the years of the regency of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza (1854-1859).

The purpose of her research is to investigate those changes introduced in the artistic-cultural field by the policy of the last Bourbons, proposing to shed some light on those dynamics that led to the development of certain pictorial genres and iconographic subjects. Her research focuses mainly on the art and context of Parma in the second half of the 19th century, but she is also interested in the art movements of the 1960s and 1970s.