We are delighted to share that Palermo Publishing will land in Spoleto this Friday, hosted by ICOLA — a vibrant, multidisciplinary space operating throughout the summer in the heart of Umbria. Named in homage to the Italian 'edicola' — the traditional newsstand — ICOLA celebrates this space as a place for people to gather, exchange ideas, and build community. Located in Piazza Mentana, the project unites independent artists, publishers, musicians, and winemakers, fostering an environment that encourages dialogue and creative practices. A selection of books from our catalogue will be on display and available for purchase at the ICOLA kiosk until the end of September.

On Friday 23 May at 7.45pm, Michela Palermo, founder of Palermo Publishing, will join Icola for an evening conversation with Gabriele Doria. She will share the story behind Palermo Publishing, from its beginnings to the present day, and explain how the press's vision continues to evolve.

The event will focus particularly on Whereupon (2023) and Whereupon: Turmoil (2024), two seminal publications by American artist Allen Frame that have helped to define the press's editorial identity.

Whereupon, the book, present a selection of photographs taken by Frame between the late 1970s and the late 1990s. Whereupon, Turmoil the zine is further enriched with ephemera and archival materials, including video still  from a theatre performance directed by Frame and based on David Wojnarowicz's Sound In The Distance monologues, which were presented in New York in 1983 and Berlin in 1984. Whereupon, Turmoil was made possible thanks to the contributions of several authors, including Frank Franca, James Romberger and Robin Hurst, whose voices add depth and resonance to the visual narrative.

The editorial process behind these publications emerged from an intense and thoughtful dialogue between artist and publisher. The archive was carefully explored to compose a sequence of nearly 60 duotone and color images, forming a fragmented yet coherent visual story—structured more by resonance than by chronology. Rather than serving as a retrospective, these publications operate as acts of montage and attentive listening, inviting viewers into the time of photography, where the image becomes both document and performative gesture.

Through projects like these, Palermo Publishing reaffirms its commitment to artistic practices that interrogate the image in its affective, political, and archival dimensions. In collaboration with museums, archives, curators, and artists, the press builds a catalogue that moves between memory and vision, subjectivity and structure, artistic gesture and editorial form.

Allen Frame is an American photographer, curator, and educator. He was awarded the Rome Prize in Photography in 2017–2018 and has held residencies in Italy and Russia. In 2021, he was a fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. In 2023, he co-curated Luxe, Calme, Volupté, an exhibition exploring the New York art scene of the 1980s. Among the artists featured in his editorial projects are Darrel Ellis, Peter Hujar, Bill Rice, and Robert Gober. He is represented by Gitterman Gallery in New York.

Whereupon and Whereupon, Turmoil, along with the full Palermo Publishing catalogue, will be available all summer at the ICOLA kiosk in Piazza Mentana. If you miss the event, you can still order the books through our website.

We can’t wait to share this piazza with you, and we wish you a beautiful start to the summer. Thank you, Icola ★