15. 4. 2025 Artist talk with the photographer Filippo Zambon and presentation of the photobook Goodbye Meadow
Artist talk with the photographer Filippo Zambon and presentation of the photobook Goodbye Meadow
UGM, Strossmayerjeva ulica 6
Tuesday, 15 April 2025, 18:00
moderator: Matej Sitar, founder and editor of The Angry Bat, photographer
Renowned photographer Filippo Zambon will present his latest photobook Goodbye Meadow at the Maribor Art Gallery. Goodbye Meadow is the newest publication from The Angry Bat, a Maribor-based publishing house, specialising in photography books. Filippo Zambon will engage in conversation with Matej Sitar, founder and editor of The Angry Bat. They will discuss Zambon’s artistic practice and his deeply personal project in the form of a photobook.
Goodbye Meadow is a deeply personal journey through memory, loss, and rediscovery. Filippo Zambon returns to Prato, a city he once left behind, to confront its past and his own. Through intimate photographs and poignant text, he navigates the streets of his childhood, the spaces his mother inhabited, and the emotions of a long-awaited homecoming. This photobook is more than a documentary—it is a meditation on grief, identity, and the ties that bind us to place and family.
»I left Prato, the city where I grew up, nearly 20 years ago without hesitation. Prato (which literally translates to ‘meadow’), an industrial town just 19 kilometers from Florence, is often overshadowed by its famous neighbour. For many years, I felt disconnected from Prato. I was occupied with my studies and my life in Finland. Visits were rare and brief. A difficult relationship with my mother and an aversion to the provincial mindset of its inhabitants often made me avoid spending time there.
In 2021, my mother’s health, both physical and mental, declined rapidly. As her only family member still around, I was thrust into the role of caretaker, returning to Prato more often to manage practical matters. This period marked the beginning of a profound nostalgia. For the first time, I felt a deep longing for the streets where I had grown up and a subtle wish to reconnect with my roots. This homesickness arose while my mother’s condition deteriorated.« —Filippo Zambon
The photobook Goodbye Meadow will be on sale at the event for a reduced price of 35€ (regular price 43€).
The event will be held in English.
Filippo Zambon (1981, Florence) is an art photographer based in Helsinki, Finland. His work currently explores themes related to identity, belonging, and the intersection between personal and collective memory, often combining documentary photography with conceptual and experimental approaches. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts Helsinki (2014) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki (2012). His work has been exhibited in numerous institutions and festivals across Europe, including the Festival of Political Photography (Helsinki), the Imago Lisboa Photo Festival (Lisbon), ISSP Gallery (Riga), the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg, the Tampere Biennale, the Photographic Gallery Hippolyte (Helsinki), the Progressa Gallery in Kirov, and the Yugor Centre in Syktyvkar, Russia. He has published three photography books: The Komi Diary (Lecturis, 2018), ShortCut (The Angry Bat, 2021), and Goodbye Meadow, published in 2025 by The Angry Bat. In 2018, he won the Finnish Photobook Award with The Komi Diary. His works are part of public and private collections, including the Helsinki Photography Museum, the Hasselblad Centre in Gothenburg (Sweden), and the Paulo Foundation. He has received numerous awards and grants, including funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Finnish Ministry of Culture. In 2023, he was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. Alongside his artistic practice, he is actively involved in teaching, offering courses at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Oulu, the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, and the Art School Maa in Suomenlinna.
Matej Sitar is a photographer. He works as an architectural photographer for various architects and magazines, publishes and presents limited edition photo books under his own brand, The Angry Bat, and regularly exhibits in Slovenia and abroad. Sitar currently lives and works in Maribor. His publishing house has so far released four of his photo books: The Abyss, 2024; Morning Sun, 2015; America, My Way, 2012; Tsuriai, 2010, as well as Nocturno by Andrej Lamut, Requiem by Goran Bertok, American Cowboy, and Heroes by Finnish photographer Karoliina Paatos, Go To Become by Spanish photographer David Moline Gadea, Peace Dance by Sanne Katainen, Galeb by Matija Brumen, and Short Cut by three Finnish photographers. In 2022, the book Into the Woods by young Slovenian photographer Maja Šimenc was published, and currently, a book titled Fisherman by German photographer Nina Weymann is being prepared. He has received several art scholarships and the prestigious Essl Prize for Young Contemporary Artist, as well as the EMZIN Award. His works are part of permanent collections in the Albertina in Vienna, Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg, UGM | Maribor Art Gallery, and various private collections. He has exhibited at the Essl Museum, Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt, UGM Studio, Sarajevo Winter, the Slovenian Embassy in Washington, the Noorderlicht Photo Festival, and more. Until February, an exhibition of all the books published by his own publishing house, The Angry Bat, was on display at the Fotohof Gallery in Salzburg. Over 25 regular and special editions, along with some sample books and photographs from some of the books, were featured.
