VAP – Visiting Artist Program (Amin Yousefi)
Defensive Readiness: Revised Edition
- When:
- Where: Fonderia 20.9, Verona (IT)
Amin Yousefi has been selected as the recipient of the Visiting Artist Program 2025 Open Call. From 1 to 6 December 2025, Yousefi will be working in the gallery space, expanding his ongoing research project Defensive Readiness: Revised Edition.
The work reactivates fragments of an Iranian military and civil defence textbook once distributed in schools. Through reconstruction, annotation, and re-enactment, Yousefi investigates how visual language disciplines the body and conditions behaviour.
By translating the textbook’s flat and didactic images into a three-dimensional level, the artist exposes what the original material omits—strain, imbalance, and the physical complexity of lived experience. His gestures become both evidence and resistance, making visible how authority embeds itself in form, and how educational imagery is often constructed to reinforce obedience over understanding.
Throughout the week, the gallery will host the artist in an open studio format, offering space for focused research and public dialogue.
Artist Recipient - Amin Yousefi
(1996, Iran) is a London-based writer, researcher, and image-based artist. His practice explores the socio-political dimensions of photography, often focusing on archival systems, authorship, and visual strategies of control.
In 2024, he received the RPS Award for Achievement in the Art of Photography and was named a Foam Talent. His work has been shown at the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation (2025), Belfast Photo Festival, Athens Photo Festival, Kranj Photo Festival (all 2024), Circulation(s), and Peckham 24.
The location
Fonderia 20.9, located in Verona, Italy, offers a versatile gallery space featuring three distinct rooms: a main exhibition area, a side room, and a basement optimized for projections. This layout supports diverse artistic expressions, from immersive installations to intimate viewing experiences. Additionally, artists in residence can access Fonderia’s in-house printing hub, equipped with professional scanners and printers, enhancing their ability to experiment with and produce high-quality visual materials directly on-site. In addition to Fonderia’s gallery space, selected artists will have access to our office at Spazio Alva, a collaborative workspace located just a five-minute walk from the gallery. This proximity offers a flexible environment to work on projects, meet other creatives, and further engage with the local arts community.
