A big heartfelt THANK YOU!
Image credit: Video still from the aftermovie 2023 by Sonia Tomegros Regalado
We want to thank everyone who made this year’s Copenhagen Photo Festival a very special experience. We are so grateful for every single visit to the festival center on Refshaleøen and at all the more than 40 festival exhibition partners across Copenhagen and Scania – thank you for taking part in and contributing so generously to this year’s festival!
Rewilding the festival center
And of course we also want to thank everyone who made this year’s Festival Center a memorable venue with 14 exhibitions in total dispersed throughout the large wilderness at Refshaleøen: Our six international ‘rewilding’ solo artists: Nanna Heitmann, Craig Ames, Kristina Knipe, Erik Berglin, Hilla Kurki, Daniel Hinks; the FUTURES photography traveling group exhibition On the Verge featuring Alice Pallot, Ugo Woatzi, Pauline Hisbacq, Cian Burke, Mark Duffy, Daniel Szalai and Julie Kleiwaniec; The emerging talents from the Scandinavian photo schools DMJX, Oslo Met, VERA Skole for kunst og Design and KBH FIlm&Fotoskole ; The curatorial initiative ATLA’s three exhibitions with emerging talents; the five selected FUTURES Talents 2023: Sofie Flinth, Mikkel Hørlyck, Susanne Fagerlund, Giulia Mangione and Jonas Tislevoll and last but not least Paris Photo and Aperture's Photo Book Awards Exhibition.
Photo books at GL STRAND and Thiemers Magasin
This year we were also very happy to pay a special tribute to the photo book with a collaboration with Kunstforeningen GL STRAND about a well visited photo book market with 19 engaged photo and art book publishers and actors and a day full of talks, discussions and screenings. And also at Thiemer's Magasin where the discussions about photo books flourished all week. We hope this focus will mark the beginning of a new tradition at the festival.
Thank you to our generous supporters!
We are also grateful for all the generous supporters financing the exhibitions this year: Københavns Kommune, Det Obelske Familiefond, Creative Europe Programme, Nordic Council of Ministers, FUTURES photography, Imagine5, Nordic Culture Point, Wisti Fonden, Indre By Lokaludvalg and Vesterbro Lokaludvalg.
Invaluable and indispensable volunteers
We are also grateful for all the helpful, supportive and creative volunteers and staff that make this festival physically appear at all. Without you the festival would not happen, so thank you for your big engagement, creative spirits and huge support – you are a true and indispensable force of nature!
A big round of applause!
Last but not least lets give a big round of applause to everyone arranging events and exhibitions around Copenhagen and Scania from the many festival partner venues, the gallery walks and artist talks to DJ sets, sound and image equipment people and all the people engaging with the amazing world of contemporary photography – we genuinely appreciate your flexibility, engagement, good work and happy spirits – we love to make this festival with you!
Let's do it again next year from 6 to 16 June
We wish you all a joyful summer and hope to see you again next year when we invite you to engage with the theme 'ENTANGLEMENT' for the 14th edition of the festival which we plan to celebrate from 6 to 16 June.
Best wishes,
The CPF team
ENTANGLEMENT – Next year’s theme is announced!
Image credit: Detail from 'Soleil and Colin' from the series 'Talisman' by Kristina Knipe CPF solo artist 2023
At the closing event on the last day of the festival we were happy to not only present an inspiring and enlightening talk with three time World Press Photo winner, Mads Nissen, who will exhibit at the festival in 2024. We also announced the theme for next year’s festival: ENTANGLEMENT.
Calling all photographers, exhibition venues and collaborators
With the 2024 theme we hope to shed light on how closely we are all connected, not only to each other but also to nature, culture and the big events influencing our lives in so many ways. Furthermore we hope the theme will inspire photographers, artists, exhibition partners and creative collaborators to reflect and engage with some of the urgent issues of our times.
Just think of all the things that connect us. Visible relations like family, friends and communities or less visible like tech and AI that engages with your online footprints in unimaginable ways and connects us in vast datasets that we have no clue about. Whether we are included in neat, transparent networks or sweeped in unruly, messy or subtle bundles that seem impossible to untangle, there’s no way to evade the entanglements of our complex world.
A hope to inspire to new collaborations and perspectives
The theme will first of all be relevant for all the photographers and artist seeking to present a solo exhibition at the 2024 Copenhagen Photo Festival. The theme is also relevant for our exhibition partners around the Copenhagen region, who will be invited to engage with the theme in some way for the next edition of the festival. Last but not least we hope to inspire collaborators and sponsors to approach the theme in new and inspiring ways to create new collaborations and perspectives.
2024 THEME TEXT: ENTANGLEMENT
The overarching theme for the 2024 festival edition is ‘entanglement’. A word or concept which refers to the way we are correlated over space and time to each other. To how we can have a mutual relationship or connection, in which one thing affects or depends on another. To the footprint that we leave, more or less intentionally.
The thought of being interconnected or interdependent can seem basic. In the sense that it is something which happens in our everyday life – whenever I do something it impacts my surroundings or relations, but it can also create reverberations that I did not foresee. With the word ‘entanglement’ we wish to focus even more closely on how we today seem to be not just connected in neat and nice networks or webs that we can observe, adjust and control.
In a global perspective with climate changes, wars, Western consumerism, AI technology or drug trafficking it is pertinent to talk about a concept like ‘entanglement’ to describe how big historical events as well as our own everyday life are closely connected and can mutually impact each other in unpredictable, unruly and even messy ways. In a complex world the connections are no longer easily traced, controlled or predicted.
When a brisk decision is made to invade Ukraine and the bread prices impact families all over the world. When a girl in Sweden refuses to go to school and impacts how we talk about global climate laws. When we realize that our personal travel plans impact ice melting in Greenland.
With our focus on entanglement for the 2024 Copenhagen Photo Festival we want to encourage open call applicants to examine our own impact on the world on a personal level as well as on how big events may circle out like rings in the water and hit us in unexpectedly and make us marvel, cry, laugh or wonder.
We are particularly interested in applications that through camera-based media show us new perspectives in this entangled world of ours. Projects that both enlighten and inspire us to engage with the world, our relations and the entangled reality we live in.
Even though we live in an often frustratingly ever changing complex world, the complexity, the interconnectedness and the entanglement across time and space also possess beauty and hope that small changes can create large movements. That we as individuals actually can create reverberations, transform old structures and make a positive footprint too.
Up-cycled artwork festival tote bags
Image credit: Calmspiracy
Bring home a unique piece of artwork with you from this year’s festival! With the help from the socio economic organisation I Tråd Med Verden on Nørrebro we have created a whole new series of unique CPF tote bags for this year’s festival created from up-cycled artwork banners from previous years! Now you can reserve your own unique tote bag and pick it up at the festival center between 1 and 11 June.
Upcycled artworks from earlier festivals
As a totally new up-cycling initiative we are very happy to present a special upgraded and up-cycled edition of the traditional CPF tote bag. This year the tote bags are not decorated with our logo as usual. Instead each bag is a small piece of artwork in itself. Each tote is created out of reused textiles from the artworks that decorated our exhibition spaces and park area on Refshaleøen and then designed and sewn by the up-cycling specialists at I Tråd Med Verden.
If you buy a tote bag this year you can look forward to bringing home a little unique piece of artwork from one of the works by the Copenhagen Photo Festival solo artists Ilvy Njokitijien, Kyrre Lien, Chirag Jindal, Dafna Tal, Mitchell Moreno, Roman Korovi, Ute Behrend from the festival in 2020 or Nick Waplington from 2021.
Unique festival tote bags made by I Tråd Med Verden
The bags are made with cut out textile from the artists’ textile prints by I Tråd Med Verden (ITMV), which is a social economic association that in partnership with the housing association KAB run sewing and design workshops in vulnerable residential areas.
They work specifically with up-cycling of discarded textiles as a focal point to create job opportunities, networks and better quality of life for people who have lost their footing on the labor market. The purpose is also to be a local resource that helps form communities and generates knowledge about textile recycling
Limited edition – reserve a bag now
Because of the unique artwork textile, each bag is unique and has a different look. and is only made in a limited edition. The bags will all be sold in our festival center merch shop from 1 to 11 June where you can hop by and pick out your favourite. You can also reserve a tote bag now via email. We will then pick one out for you and you can collect it at the festival center during the festival.
Specifications:
Made by PVC-free polyester. Measurements: w 37 cm x h 43 cm. The tote bag comes with a long textile strap that allows you to put it over your head when strolling or biking.
Price: DKK 200
Berglin’s bird homage to Audubon
Image credit: Erik Berglin from The Bird Project
The Swedish photographer artist Erik Berglin, who is one of the headliners at the festival center, is giving a very special birdwatching tour in collaboration with Dansk Ornitologisk Forening (Danish Ornithology Association) on Vesterbro 2 June. The artist will take us scouting for exotic birds on the urban walls of Vesterbro. The tour and urban bird exhibition is part of the artist's 12 year long The Bird Project that has rewilded cities across the globe with life size exotic birds.
Join us for a unique and exotic birdwatching tour of Vesterbro Friday 2 June when one of the festival headliners is taking us for a rewilding tour of Vesterbro spotting exotic birds on the city walls.
Over a period of twelve years the Swedish photographer artist Erik Berglin wheat-pasted hand cut photographs of birds in cities all around the world and now in connection with his exhibition at Copenhagen Photo Festival he has done the same thing in Vesterbro.
Rewilding cities across the globe with life size birds
For The Bird Project each bird is made in natural size and placed in a carefully selected location and then documented by the artist. In total Berglin placed no less than 4982 photographs of birds that were wheat-pasted in twelve cities all around the world.
“I sourced ornithology books in antiquarian bookshops and libraries. Suitable images were scanned, edited and reprinted. A few years into the project I learned about the American ornithologist John James Audubon’s monumental book Birds of America, from 1838,” Erik Berglin explains.
Inspired by Audubon’s Birds of America
“I was fascinated to learn that Audubon had also worked with bird illustrations in scale 1:1 (just like I had been doing on facades). It had taken Audubon 12 years to complete his book, so I decided to turn my project into an homage to Audubon and keep it going for 12 years and then I made a book with the same dimensions as Birds of America (100x 70 cm).”
“Remember to bring binoculars”
For the 2 June tour Eric Berglin will take us through the streets of Vesterbro to spot out the more than 20 exotic birds in life size around Vesterbro. During the tour he will talk about the species we find, about their natural habitat and his project rewilding the cities around the world. The project combines ornithology, storytelling and street art/street photography the photographer explains and for the tour he reminds participants: “Remember to bring binoculars”.
The Bird Project is supported by Vesterbro Lokaludvalg and Dansk Ornitologisk Forening.
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What: Art tour in Vesterbro with photographer Erik Berglin
Where: The tour takes off from Naturbutikken, Vesterbrogade 138, 1620 København V (home of Dansk Ornitologisk Forening)
When: 2 June 4.30-5.15
Go to event
Strong event program across the city
Image credit: Joakim Eskildsen from his series 'Home works' exhibition at Fotografisk Center opening with a talk on 2. june.
Copenhagen Photo Festival presents the final festival program of the year, which, in addition to all the photo exhibitions, offers everything from inspiring talks and investigative panel debates to thought-provoking films and workshops that focus on rewilding. The festival opens with a curated grand opening event on 1 June, while three time World Press Photo winner Mads Nissen rounds off the festival with the last talk of the year on 11 June and unveiling of next year’s theme.
Copenhagen Photo Festival opens on Thursday 1 June with a large grand opening event that marks the beginning of 11 days filled with contemporary photography, powerful films and insightful talks. The festival's grand opening is celebrated with DJ, happy hour and a rewilded photo performance as well as guided tours by the exhibiting artists in the exhibition park's 13 exhibitions on Refshaleøen as a taste of what the festival has to offer.
Explore all exhibitions and events at the festival center
Topical talks and panels examine art, photography and sustainable practices
In addition to presenting its visitors with contemporary photography, Copenhagen Photo Festival also wants to create a space for dialogue and inspiration through an extensive program of talks and panels.
Under this year's main theme of ‘rewilding’, the festival opens the doors to a series of panel debates in collaboration with FUTURES Photography, where sustainable art practices, art in public space and the importance of artificial intelligence for future photography and art are discussed.
The panels include photographers exhibiting at the festival flanked by a number of guest speakers and experts such as Carina Hammer, responsible for sustainability at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Lisa Giomar Hydén Exhibitions Director at Fotografiska Stockholm and Majken Overgaard from Korridor, but also Raphaël Biollay, curator at Images Vevey and Jacob Theilgaard, director of Bæredygtigt Kulturliv.nu.
Reserve your seat at the panels
From Fryd Frydendahl to Torben Eskerod
In addition to the professional program on Refshaleøen, this year you can experience interesting conversations about photography all over the city, including at the photo book market at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, Theilgaard Academy, Thiemers Magasin and at the Fotografisk Center and Det Kgl. Library and a number of other exhibition venues of the festival. On the program are, among others, Fryd Frydendahl, Joakim Eskildsen, Per Bak Jensen, Ole Christiansen, Lærke Posselt and Torben Eskerod.
‘Rewild’ your photographic skills
During the Copenhagen Photo Festival, there will be a series of workshops that will take you back to the early techniques of photography. Here you can try your hand at cyanotype, wet plate photography, polaroid transfer or sew your own notebook with the elegant Japanese bookbinding technique.
Photography in the Cinemateque
This year, Copenhagen Photo Festival also offers an extensive film program with subsequent talks both on Refshaleøen and in a special photo film program at the Cinematheque that shows e.g. acclaimed films by Sally Mann, Jacob Riis, Nan Goldin,Helmut Newton and the pioneeren and mad amn Eadweard Muybridge.
Phie Ambo in dialogue about ‘rewilding’
At the festival center you can experience Phie Ambo's latest film "Organised Wildness", which focuses sharply on the dilemmas and conflicting interests that arise in a community in Thy in North Jutland, when the community is introduced to the rewilding of a local forest area. The film will be with English subtitles and after the screening Phie Ambo will enter a conversation on how we can rewild Denmark and have more wild nature. The film screening is made possible in collaboration with Imagine5 and Bio Bio.
Book your seat for Organiseret vildskab
Three-time World Press Photo winner puts the finishing touches on this year's festival
One of the world's most recognized photographers, Mads Nissen, who has won the main prize in World Press Photo three times, rounds off the Copenhagen Photo Festival with an artist talk about his latest project SANGRE BLANCA.
SANGRE BLANCA was made in a unique collaboration with the Colombian artist Juan Arreaza, and examines the journey of cocaine from a laboratory in Colombia to a nightclub in Kødbyen in Copenhagen. The project unfolds through photographs, oil paintings and installations and gives a unique insight into the historically high cocaine trade and its human consequences.
Open call 2024 kickoff
With this presentation, Mads Nissen connects to the Copenhagen Photo Festival 2024, where he will be headliner with his exhibition of SANGRE BLANCA. In connection with the talk, the veil will also be lifted for next year's main theme which kicks off the open call for the 2024 edition of Copenhagen Photo Festival.
Read more about the closing event
Explore the full festival programme
Phie Ambo’s ‘Organiseret Vildskab’ at the festival center
Image credit: Still from Phie Ambo's film 'Organiseret Vildskab' 2022. Drone photo by Anders Morgenthaler.
How do you make something wild that has been tamed for centuries? On 8 June we invite you to join us at the festival center for a screening and panel discussion of Phie Ambo’s latest film ‘Organiseret Vildskab’ about the rewilding of Hammer Bakke. The event is made possible by Imagine5 and Bio Bio.
Did you know that in Denmark we have less than two percent of wild nature left in Denmark? This makes us the second most cultivated country in the world. Rewilding nature is becoming increasingly important in the face of biodiversity loss and climate change
Denmark is, after Bangladesh, the most cultivated country in the world. This can be seen in our biodiversity, which has plummeted since the 1980s. We actually have less than two percent of wild nature left in Denmark, and something must now be done about that.
The dilemmas of ‘rewilding’
The Danish Nature Foundation has acquired a large area in Hammer Bakker with production forest, which is to be converted into wild nature with large grasses, butterflies and, with a little luck; a golden eagle or two. It is Denmark's largest forest project and the rewilding of Hammer Bakker in a way forms a kind of vanguard for the 15 nature national parks that the government has decided must be created in the future.
How can we go back?
Phie Ambo’s Organiseret Vildskab is about the process in which we all – both humans and animals – must participate in order to save the pieces of Danish nature. Because how do you make something wild that has been tamed for so long?
Organiseret Vildskab is about how we humans can be included in the great narrative that is of nature.
Film screening and panel discussion 8 june
Join us for the screening of Organiseret Vildskab followed by a panel discussion and conversation with the director, Phie Ambo around how we can rewild Denmark, what will the transformation realistically look like and how can individual citizens do their part to ensure we get there. The panel will be led by Alexander Holm (podcast host and Den dyriske Time) and include the perspectives Phie Ambo (director), Rasmus Willig (Andelsgaarde) and a student film maker.
- 16:30 - Welcome & Screening of "Organiseret Vildskab"
- 17:30 - Panel + Q&A
- 18:30 - Delve into guided reflection & get to know the panelists and one another
- 19:00 Closing of Event
This event is created as a collaboration between CPF, Imagine5 who is an impact media foundation co-creating for a sustainable future and Bio-Bio who disseminates the green transition through documentaries, talks and theater.
Limited seating – book your seat here!
NB! Please note that the event is free if you have a festival ticket, but you need to reserve your seat via Imagine5's Billetto-link – if you have already bought a festival ticket, you will get it refunded via Imagine5 when showing your ticket at the screening.
Open Call with Shirin Neshat
Image credit: Rodolfo Martinez
Do you want to have your photographic art reviewed by renowned artist Shirin Neshat? Our media partner, the award winning photography organization Der Greif, is right now inviting photographers worldwide to submit their works that respond to a line from the poem Common Love by Persian poet Ahmad Schamlou: “I am a common pain, scream me!”. The open call is guest edited by Shirin Neshat and the chosen photographers will be featured in Der Greif’s upcoming print issue #16. Deadline for submitting work is already 25 May!
Neshat, who often uses poetry as a source of inspiration, explains that the poem deeply resonates with her and speaks about our shared humanity. She adds, “We all grapple with grief and trauma, both on an individual and collective level. But with this common ground, we feel less alone. This is human nature: we see and feel that others experience similar struggles therefore we feel bonded and hopeful. That is why we create art and culture to reach beyond our differences.”
Der Greif is excited to receive submissions for issue #16, and this is a rare opportunity for artists to have their work seen by Shirin Neshat, one of the most influential contemporary artists of our time. Selected artists will have their work published in the upcoming issue, and get the chance to be part of related events Der Greif will organise for the magazine release during the international photography fair Paris Photo 2023, which takes place November 9th -12th.
About Der Greif
Der Greif is an award-winning contemporary photography organisation. Through crowdsourcing, Der Greif brings together diverse voices and provides a platform and visibility for a range of practitioners and their works. Since 2008, Der Greif has engaged with topics like changing authorship perceptions, image de- and re-contextualization, appropriation, and artistic approaches to photographic archives and remix culture.
Der Greif's publications demonstrate how pairings of images by different authors can generate new meanings. Der Greif explores the creation, distribution, and reception of images - in print, on screens, and in exhibitions. The organisation reflects on and questions the role of images: how we construct and perceive our environment and our respective responsibilities within it.
Since issue #11, Der Greif has been guest-edited by artists Jason Fulford, Broomberg & Chanarin, Penelope Umbrico and Sylvie Fleury, among others.
Der Greif has worked with institutions such as FOAM, Aperture Foundation, C/O Berlin, Fotomuseum Winterthur and published works from about 3.000 photographers, artists and authors in printed publications as well as online.
Halfdan's brief sanctuary
“During corona I began going on daily walks around the cemetery and I noticed how being away for an extended period of time allowed me to observe the garden in a different light. I was immediately drawn to the young people hanging out there and the connotations of mortality tied to the cemetery”
Meet photographer Halfdan Venlov. The artist behind A brief sanctuary, which opens at Arden Asbæk Gallery 26 May, is seeking optimism in the everyday in his poetic and personal photographs.
His photographs document and ponder over the life and still life at Assistens Kirkegården – Copenhagen’s celebrated churchyard-turned-city park – with portraits of the young people inhabiting the beautiful, atmospheric and historical space, the flowers and the gravestones of the many notable and less notable Copenhageners resting there.
Hear him talk more about his practice and photographs in the video below and check out his exhibition and artist talks at Arden Asbæk Gallery here
Aesthetica x CPF – FREE gift!
Image credit: Amy Harrity, Simoné En Su Luz for Tidal Magazine. Creative Director: Indigo Sky Creative. Stylist: Heather Rest. Hair: Annie Martinez. Make-up: Mayela Sepulveda.
We are excited to be working with Aesthetica Magazine as a media partner in connection with the 2023 festival. To mark this partnership, Aesthetica is offering you a complementary digital edition of their beautiful magazine!
Aesthetica Magazine
You will be inspired by Aesthetica Magazine. It is a worldwide destination for art and culture. The magazine was founded in 2003 and is the go-to publication for the latest news, features and reviews. The magazine is a bastion for independent ideas and thought featuring innovative practitioners working across art, design, photography, sculpture, installation, architecture, fashion and film.
Editorial Focus
Aesthetica’s editorial provides you with an opportunity to discover new talent alongside key established practitioners. You will experience outstanding visuals and engage with award-winning journalism. Key topics include sustainability, climate justice, new technologies, diversity and inclusion. The magazine uses art as a lens through which to look at and interpret an ever-changing world.
Independent Print
As the world changed to digital in the 21st century, print still holds a firm position in our hearts much like vinyl. Aesthetica believes in the power of independent ideas. The magazine is original, dynamic and free-thinking. Its insightful editorial presents creativity at the cutting-edge of the contemporary art world.
Download Your FREE Issue
Enjoy a complimentary digital copy of Aesthetica Magazine today by following these 3 steps:
- Click this link
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Subscribe & Save 70%
We hope you enjoy your free digital issue of Aesthetica Magazine. To receive print copies delivered direct to your door, Aesthetica is also thrilled to offer you a one year print subscription for a generous 70% saving on newsstand price. Click here today to subscribe and Save 70% + p&p
WORKSHOPS – Rewild your photo skills!
At the festival center we invite you to test and develop your photographic skills with a number of workshops that celebrate photography and old school techniques – from cyanotypes to wet plate and polaroid transfer. You can even learn the Japanese technique of stab stitching and sew your own photo or note book.
From cyanotypes to polaroids
Learn how to do beautiful Cyanotypes, an old analogue photographic technique. On this 3-hour course, you will be introduced to all stages of the technique and have the opportunity to try it out with simple tools. The workshop will be conducted by Barbara Katzin and Charlotte Siewartz from Fotografi på Godsbanen in Aarhus and takes place on 3 and 4 June.
We also host a workshop exploring the practice of polaroid transfer in which a short introduction to Polaroid’s techniques are included, after which the participants themselves try the technique and its possibilities. The workshop is organised by Sille Juline Høghly Petersen, paper conservator and artist herself.
The magic of wet plate photography
On 4 June you have a rare chance to get an introduction to wet plate photography! Explore the roots of photography and delve into the magic of the 19th century technique of wet plate photography with the professional photographer Henrik Wichmann. By the end of the workshop you get your own print home with you.
Japanese book binding techniques
Finally, on the 10 June we will host the workshop ‘Thread the needle’ in which you learn to sew your own notebook with the oh-so-elegant and versatile Japanese stab binding and the functional and easy Singer stitch. The workshop is taught by Julia Mejnertsen who is also the founder of the publishing house Blankt Papir Press.
Be quick to sign up – limited seats
To participate in the festival center workshops you need to sign up directly with the organiser and please note that there is a fee for materials to sign up. The festival ticket to enter the festival center is not included in the fee.
Find more information about each workshop in the festival center and at our festival partners here:
Workshops at the Festival Center
4 June – ‘Wet Plate photography’
Workshop at ours partners
3 June – Open House and workshops at FABRIKKEN for Kunst&Design
8 June – ‘Home Writing’ at Fotografisk Center
9 June – Photo demo w. Ulla Hauer at Kunst 86
Polaroid Transfer workshop at 2022 festival – on a rainy day. Video: Sonia Tomegeros