The Dreamers: IED students open up a visual conversation about the hopes and realities of youth

What would young people like to tell us, if we paused long enough to listen? That question lies at the heart of The Dreamers, a new project by IED – Istituto Europeo di Design that made its debut at Exposed Torino Foto Festival this spring. Founded in Milan in 1966, IED has long been known for nurturing creative talent across Europe and Latin America. With schools in Italy, Spain and Brazil, the institution’s approach combines hands-on learning with real-world opportunities. Conceived as the first chapter of a three-year visual archive titled Ti vorrei dire (I would like to tell you), this year’s initiative brings together the work of 21 students from IED’s Photography courses in Turin, Milan and Rome, in collaboration with Gallerie d’Italia – Intesa Sanpaolo.

Presented as a dynamic public portfolio review rather than a traditional exhibition, The Dreamers asked both participants and audiences to step into a space of conversation. Students shared their projects in boxes designed by peers in the Visual Communication Design course at IED Firenze. These boxes were placed on tables that became points of dialogue: between artist and viewer, student and curator, dreamer and reality. It was a setting that evoked something everyday and familiar, but layered with new intention.

Who are these 20-somethings? What shapes their worlds, and how do they see themselves within it? Across the event, students explored the textures of contemporary life with sincerity, navigating themes of identity, transition, belonging and disquiet. The goal was not to present polished answers but to offer something truer: a multifaceted portrait of youth, made with honesty and complexity.

From the surreal to the intimate, the projects spanned emotional and technical registers. Fragments of Becoming by Riccardo Vacca (IED Roma) used a mix of AI, visual anthropology and analogue photography to explore the liminal space between adolescence and adulthood. In Bianco Latte, Valentina Doddato (IED Milano) created a quiet reverie of memory, where nature and domestic space melt into a landscape of suspended time. Meanwhile, In Between by Sofia Valabrega (IED Torino) captured the stasis and uncertainty that defines so much of young adult life today: the longing to move forward, tempered by the fear of getting it wrong.

Curators and course coordinators Giulia Ticozzi (IED Torino), Carlotta Cattaneo (IED Milano) and Daria Scolamacchia (IED Roma) described the event as “a participatory performance” in which the table served as a stage, inviting physical movement, informal critique and shared reflection. The process was designed to empower students not just to show their work but to actively shape the space around it.

In doing so, The Dreamers became more than an exhibition. It evolved into a live archive, constantly reshaped by those who engaged with it. By placing vulnerability and agency at the centre, IED offered a vision of arts education that feels refreshingly grounded: creative, yes, but also responsive, participatory and deeply human.

Projects like The Dreamers are rooted in the approach of the IED Visual Arts School. Today, visual culture permeates almost every aspect of life – from communication and fashion to music, politics, and digital entertainment. To move confidently across these fields requires a highly interdisciplinary creative education, one that blends emerging technologies with cultural context and a strong sense of storytelling.

At IED’s Visual Arts School, both BA and MA students are not only learning techniques or software, but exploring the relationship between form, message and meaning. They’re encouraged to experiment across disciplines – photography, cinema, animation, illustration, sound, video and new media – to find their own creative voice. From AI to virtual and augmented reality, the school embraces the tools and environments that define today’s hybrid world, often described as “phygital” for the ways in which the physical and digital converge.

Equipped with state-of-the-art tools and guided by a methodology that values experimentation and collaboration, students are trained to respond to the ever-evolving visual languages of our time. The result is work that doesn’t just look good – it speaks with intention.