The town of Cortona, in the province of Arezzo, is the site of the international photography festival Cortona on the Move, an event that animates Tuscany every year, which began on July 13th and will end on October 1st this year. This edition's theme is "More or Less" and how these two categories can be used to better understand ourselves and our world. Photographers explore the contrasts between wealth and poverty, abundance and scarcity, marginality and mainstream in 26 exhibitions across the city. "More than ever, the categories of More or Less define the world in which we live, our aspirations, fears, and belongings," says Paolo Woods, festival artistic director. "The contrast between abundance and scarcity, the superfluous and the essential, the elites and the masses, accumulation and dispersion." The artistic director continued explaining the theme after recalling the figure of St. Francis of Assisi: "More or Less are categories whose value changes over time and geographically. They are not only economic categories, but also ontological, serving as a lens through which we view the world. From architecture to music, fashion to literature, cooking to sport, nearly everything can be placed on either side of this iconic dividing line. We believe the time has come to investigate how these antipodes shape our worldview, ideologies, and behaviors." And he concluded by recalling the significance of this theme in photographic art and why it was rejected for the festival: "At Cortona On The Move 2023, we will explore More, looking at the past and the present, and we will focus Less on stereotypes, offering a program full of ideas to understand our world but lacking in simplifications."
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