ABOUT

Elia Festa, the second of six children, was born in 1956 in Porta Romana, a working-class quarter of Milan. Af-
ter his father’s death, when Elia was eight years old, he began working, selling ice cream and beverages at a
cinema near his home. In the summer of 1969, frequenting the city pool, he met Ibrahim Kodra, a well-known
Albanian artist, who taught him to draw and paint using mixed me- dia on discarded materials. Elia developed an interest in photography early on. When he was fifteen, he bought his first camera with money he had earned working for the Young & Rubicam advertising agency. It became a great love that he would never abandon. He enrolled in one of the first evening photography courses offered by the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED). In 1972, still underage, he opened his own graphic design studio with the help of a frontman and began free- lancing for major advertising agencies. Two years later, he founded Crazy Corner together with some friends. In addition to working on advertising campaigns, the business was specialised in record covers for Phonogram. Elia honed his artistic sensibility in these years. It was Pierre Restany who had his works exhibited for the first time: L’età del pensiero (1989) and Riflessioni (1993). In 1993, he began work- ing with Photology in Milan and London. He met and frequented the most important photographers of the twentieth century, including Mario Giacomelli, with whom he both worked and became friends. In 2000, in the city of Bologna, he presented 100 al 2000, a work done for Photology. He met filmmaker Salvino Raco, with whom he created the performance piece La corsa di Sizwe Kondhile in 2006. The photographs were projected at the Triennale di Milano. Inspired by this project, he undertook the project It’s about Blood dedicated to Nelson Mandela, to his suffering and spirit of sacrifice. In 2010, he presented Microbi at the Studio Visconti gallery in Milan, marking his shift from photography to digital art. In 2011, he exhibited Photosophy, an in- dustrial design/art project for Ege, at the Cesar Pelli tower in Piazza Gae Aulenti, when it was still under construction. Black Lights was one of his first socially engaged works, based on the theme of violence against women, children, and the disabled. Displayed in 2013 at the Officine Creative Ansaldo in Milan, it was a collaborative work with Salvino Raco, the University of Milano-Bicocca, and the Embassy of Sweden. Nato soprattutto a Milano (Born mainly in Milan), a ret- rospective held at the Galleria del Credito Valtellinese, Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan in 2017, was curated by Fortunato D’Amico: “For Elia Festa, Light is the absolute protagonist material in art”. BLAU is the project presented at the Milan Aquarium in 2019. Produced by the City of Milan and curated by Giancarlo Lacchin, Fortunato D'Amico, and Vittorio Erlindo, BLAU addresses the important issue of plastics in the sea and follows the UN 2030 Agenda. "Building Light" Biennale Light Mantua 2020 curated by Vittorio Erlindo at Casa Mantegna. Also in 2020, "Last Supper Recall" at the Palazzo delle Stelline, Galleria Creval, with Andy Warhol, Daniel Spoerri, Filippo Avalle, and Bruno Bordoli curated by Flavio Caroli.