Nature dreams in a digital age
NATURE DREAMS Refik Anadol Image credit: Emma Sennels / ARKEN
The Turkish artist Refik Anadol can right now be seen on Danish soil for the first time ever in an exhibition at the contemporary art museum ARKEN south of Copenhagen. His art raises highly topical questions about our relationship with artificial intelligence.
What does it mean to be human in a time permeated by artificial intelligence – now and in the future? In his giant digital installations, Refik Anadol (b. 1985), who is currently also exhibited at MoMA, works with machine learning and artificial intelligence, utilising the data-driven algorithms found everywhere in our everyday life.
His installations raise philosophical questions which point to a future where human existence is inextricably linked to data and advanced computer technology – to an even greater extent than today. Refik Anadol presents three works at ARKEN, one of them created especially for the exhibition Nature dreams.
AI algorithmic abstractions
The works take their point of departure in visual presentations of nature found online and on digital media. These gushing waterfalls, sunsets, forests and plains affect our shared ideas about what nature is and what it looks like. Anadol has collected millions of images of nature through the years, compiling vast sets of data. Through AI algorithms, Anadol’s works transform this data into completely new, partially abstract and everchanging depictions of nature. The main work of the exhibition is the 7 x 7 metre data sculpture Nature Dreams from 2021.
Weather data from Ishøj becomes a new work of art
Refik Anadol has created a new work rooted in the museum’s unique natural setting. Taking its starting point in meteorological data from the area around ARKEN, the work’s algorithms translate this information into a visual world of images that will be displayed outdoors, projected onto the museum building. Responding to the weather, the work will change from one minute to the next.
In the third work of the exhibition, visitors enter an immersive installation where the viewer’s senses are subjected to a barrage of input from all sides, as if you had entered the brain of a machine.
Three-year exhibition series
REFIK ANADOL – NATURE DREAMS is the first part of ARKEN’s three-year exhibition series NATURE FUTURE, which uses art to explore humanity’s relationship with nature and technology, now and in the future. NATURE FUTURE will unfold within the museum’s spectacular 1,000 m2 gallery, The Art Axis, taking the form of a succession of immersive installations created by leading international contemporary artists.
To the greatest extent possible, these exhibitions will be produced in Denmark and specifically for the museum in order to minimise climate impact and costs due to factors such as international shipping.
Find directions and opening hours
Women of the sea
Image credit: Ida Johansen
They portray the Haenyeo women coming out of the sea after a hard and dangerous workday. They are tired and worn out, but still strong and powerful. Many of these women are 60-80 years old. Through generations they have gathered knowledge of the ocean and marine life. Right now you can experience 26 large format portraits by photographer Hyung S. Kim of the women of the sea is exhibited at M/S Maritime Museum in Helsinore.
Haenyeo are women of the sea. Female free divers that dive both for animals and plants. They live in close union with the sea, the waves and the storms.
Connection with the sea
The more than thousand year old haenyeo tradition is built upon togetherness, discipline, sustainable fishing and a spiritual connection to the goddess of the sea. The profession is inherited through generations and the girls learn the Haenyeo skills from a very early age.
A unique culture
In this special exhibition ‘Haenyeo – Women of the Sea’ M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark dives right into the story of these female free divers on the Island of Jeju in the South of Korea. A Culture so unusual that it is on the Unesco World Heritage list.
The outstanding photographic portraits of female free divers are shot by photographer Hyung S. Kim.
Celebrating photo books!
Image credit: Leporello by Louise Bøgelund Saugmann at Blankt Papir Press
The photo book has a special place in most photographers' hearts – as well as in the hearts of many photography lovers. This year, Copenhagen Photo Festival, together with selected partners, has therefore chosen to give special space and attention to the photo book. We look forward to enjoying lots of inspirational photo books and talks all over the city.
The festival has this year teamed up with the Kunstforeningen GL STRAND to present a special festival photo book market in the center of Copenhagen with around +20 publishers and actors as well as a day-long talk and screening program on the 4 June.
Indulging in photographic narratives at GL STRAND
We look forward to welcoming both photo book publishers, artists, festival guests and art gallery visitors to a day indulged in photo books, talks and screenings in the art gallery’s beautiful hall decorated by Erik A. Frandsen.
The market is the perfect place to visit if you want to keep in touch with contemporary Nordic photo books. And if the weather is nice the gallery will open the courtyard and outdoor bar to the visitors.
You can find the full list of exhibitors and the talk & screening programme (which will be announced primo May) in our focus section. If you have a festival ticket you get free entrance to the photo book market and half price on the entrance to see the exhibitions at The art association GL STRAND 4 June.
Talks at Thiemer’s
Likewise, every day during the festival period, a local cultural hotspot for books and coffee on Frederiksberg, Thiemers Magasin, invites festival guests to visit their photo book exhibition and a daily happy hour from 5 to 6 pm called ‘Sign & Talk & Drink’. Here photographers talk about their recent work and practice in relation to the photo book. The full talk programme will be announced primo May.
Celebrating the best of photo books at Refshaleøen
In addition, the festival is very happy to host Paris Photo and the Aperture Foundation's celebration of the past year's prize-winning photo books in the festival center on Refshaleøen this year.
2022 marked the 10th anniversary of the Paris Photo-Aperture Photobook Awards – a celebration of the photobook’s contributions to the evolving narrative of photography. The award recognizes excellence in 3 major categories of photobook publishing: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalogue of the Year.
The exhibition of the 35 books shortlisted for the 2022 PhotoBook Awards was exhibited at the Grand Palais Ephémère during Paris Photo in November and has recently been on view in Printed Matter in New York City – thereafter the exhibition will tour internationally and reach Copenhagen in June where it will be presented at the festival center on Refshaleøen.
Find our photo book focus here
Cosmic metaphors in Kerteminde
In Johannes Larsen Museum in Kerteminde you can right now experience the photo exhibition Reflections by photographer Janne Klerk accompanied by texts by astrophysicist Anja C. Andersen and author Gitte Broeng. In the exhibition Klerk explores a tiny lake in the woods and creates a central metaphor for our relationship with nature, cosmos and other people.
Janne Klerk’s extensive solo exhibition in the old home of the Danish artist and nature lover Johannes Larsen spans three central series in her work and over several decades of her career. The exhibition gives a perspective to her interest and work with reflections as a varied phenomenon. The core message of Klerk’s exhibition consists of a series of photographic reflections which bring humans and the cosmos into play and bring nature right into the exhibition space.
Her project, “Reflections at the Foot of Heaven” consists of photographs taken of the water surface of the same small lake and raises a wide range of questions; about the refraction of light in water, about the ecosystem, the universe, the sun, the atmosphere and about reflections between people.
“When you’ve spotted all the parallels there are between motifs on the surface of the water and the way we humans reflect ourselves in each other, the ways we act and communicate, the water surface becomes a fascinating and rich phenomenon,” the artist says.
Hear more about Janne Klerk’s fascination and work with reflections – from the tiny lake in the woods to the big cosmos – in the video below, which also features astrophysicist Anja C. Andersens reflections on the phenomenon of reflections.
Explore the exhibition programme 2023!
Image credit: Joakim Eskildsen / Fotografisk Center
Copenhagen Photo Festival can today announce the final exhibition program with the overarching theme of ‘rewilding’. An ambitious theme that is not only brought into play in the festival center on Refshaleøen, but also unfolds across the festival partner venues, which include major institutions such as Arken, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Royal Library to the Maritime Museum, The Museum of National History and others.
When the Copenhagen Photo Festival starts in June, the exhibitions are not limited to Beddingen on Refshaleøen. With a wide range of exhibition partners, the Nordic region's largest photo festival also branches out to numerous of the capital's recognized art venues throughout the region with exhibitions in cities from Helsingør to Ishøj as well as Kerteminde on Fyn and Falsterbo in Sweden.
Copenhagen Photo Festival rewilds Copenhagen
During the festival, the festival theme of ‘rewilding’ is unfolded across our festival exhibition partners. At Nordatlantens Brygge, you can experience two exhibitions with photography and film that embrace the Greenlandic and Icelandic nature. The two exhibitions examine modern man's relationship with nature and remind us of the climate changes we are experiencing.
Not too far from there, at Harbo Bar in Nørrebro, Lene Harbo has curated an exhibition based on the photo festival's main theme of rewilding, based on the artist Yana Wernicke's exhibition Companions. In the photographs, the artist examines the human relationship with animals and shares rare and special moments of empathy and care with animals.
During the festival period, several of the festival's solo artists also rewild the urban space in Copenhagen. At Højbro Plads, the Finnish photographer Hilla Kurki exhibits her flower portraits, while English Craig Ames's AI-created algae images can be experienced at Thorvaldsens Plads throughout June. In Vesterbro, you can go exploring for wild, exotic birds when the Swedish artist Erik Berglin rewilds the walls of the district with his project The Bird Project.
This year's photo festival blooms from Helsingør and Landskrona to Ishøj and Kerteminde
The festival also invites guests from outside the capital to explore photography in collaboration with a number of local festival partners. In May, Landskrona Foto & Museum opens the group exhibition Des Oiseaux, which shows the fascination and fascination with birds of 13 international photographers, including the photographer Roger Ballen. In addition, the festival is also collaborating with Landskrona Foto on a special screening of one of this year's main names from the festival center, namely Craig Ames, who can therefore also be experienced outdoors in Sweden over the summer.
In Johannes Larsen Museum in Kerteminde you can experience the special exhibition Reflections by Janne Klerk. The photographs in the exhibition were taken in the water surface of the same small lake and raise a wide range of questions; about the refraction of light in water, about the ecosystem, the universe, the sun, the atmosphere and about reflections between people.
At the Maritime Museum in Helsingør, 26 monumental portraits of Haenyeo women, taken by Hyung S. Kim, are presented. Haenyeo women are deep-sea divers who live in South Korea and who for generations have lived by fishing in a very special way, and therefore live in close connection with the rhythm of the sea.
South of Copenhagen, at Arken in Ishøj, Refik Anadol's exhibition Winds of Denmark can be explored. Here he presents three digital installation works, all of which focus sharply on the mass media's visual representation of nature, and which thereby influence our perception of what nature is and how it looks.
Photo books get special attention
The photo book has a special place in most photographers' hearts. This year, Copenhagen Photo Festival, together with selected partners, has therefore chosen to give special space to the photo book as a format and has teamed up with Kunstforeningen GL STRAND to present a special festival photo book market with around 20 publishers and actors as well as a day-long talk and screening program on the 4 June. Likewise, every day during the festival period, Thiemers Magasin invites you inside for Sign & Talk & Drink, where current photographers talk about their work. In addition, Paris Photo and the Aperture Foundation's celebration of the past year's prize-winning photo books will guest the festival center on Refshaleøen this year.
NB The full program of activities for the festival is continuously updated on the website and is expected to be completely ready in the beginning of May.
The festival's photo book programme can be found here
List of exhibition partners
Atla · Banja Rathnov Kunsthandel og Galleri · Barbara Nolsøe · Bien Contemporary · Danish Architecture Center · Dark Gallery · Det Grønlandske Hus · Det nationale fotomuseum · Det Nationalhistoriske Museum · DMJX · FABRIKKEN for Kunst og Design · Falsterbo Fotomuseum · Fotografisk Center · Galleri Format · Galleri Møller Witt · Galleri Rocks · Kunstforeningen GL STRAND · Harbo Bar · Johannes Larsen Museet · KBH Film & Fotoskole · Kulturhuset Støberiet // Blågårdens bibliotek · Landskrona Foto · Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst · Martin Asbæk Gallery · Arden Asbæk Gallery · Nikolaj Kunsthal · Nordatlantens Brygge · Oblong · Oslo Met · Paul Pape x Inter.pblc · Prospekt Space · PRUST · Ryesgade – Kunst 86 · Simian · Stig Stasig Archive · M/S Museet for Søfart · Thiemers Magasin · Tingbjerg Kulturhus · Vandrehallen i Hillerød · VERA skole for kunst · Wei Weng x Copenwater x Big Bio
List of photo book publishers and people at the photo book market at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND 4 June
At Last Books · Blankt Papir Press · BOOK LAB · Books & Music · Breadfield Press · Disko Bay · Famn Publishing · Forlaget Aftryk · FORLAGET tidløs · Fragment · Jacob Aue Sobol · KATALOG – Journal of Photography & Video · Martin Asbæk Gallery · NW Gallery · Roulette Russe · Space Poetry · Strandberg Publishing · Tira Books
An Easter egg for you!
Poster rhymes on Easter – well almost! And as a special treat to celebrate springtime, the upcoming holidays as well as our very recent poster launch and new vibrant rewilded logo we have prepared a special Easter egg surprise for you!
Until 10 April you get 30% discount if you put two partout festival tickets in your basket online. The partout ticket gives you access to the festival center all 11 days from 1 to 11 June as well as to our photo book market at GL STRAND on 4 June.
With the ticket or armband you also get a discount at several of our festival partners in Copenhagen and Sweden. We can safely say that this is probably the best festival deal in town right now!
NB! The discount appears in the online basket as soon as you have registered two tickets.
Become a volunteer
Copenhagen Photo Festival is looking for creative, community-minded, and fun-seeking people to join our passionate group of volunteers who are coming together to create an amazing festival experience this summer in June.
Now you can sign up to become part of our engaged team of productive souls for the festival 2023. Whether it is selling tickets, building exhibitions, doing video and photo content or helping out as exhibition host, our volunteers play a central role during our festival in June.
Help us create the largest photo festival experience in the Nordic region
If you like photography, events, culture, art and busy days in an international environment, Copenhagen Photo Festival is the place for you! We’re looking for volunteers who are interested in working flexibly and who enjoys taking on various practical tasks and helping our festival guests feel welcome.
Depending on your wishes and experience, you can take on different types of tasks before, during or after the festival – from making photographic content to help build the festival site. There’s something here for everyone! Please note that volunteers are required to contribute a minimum of three (3) shifts before, during or after the Festival in June. You must +18 years old to be a volunteer.
On top of the inspired community experience all volunteers get a partout ticket to the festival and a goodiebag, with special products and offers centered around photography, culture, art and events.
Read more about the tasks and how to sign up
The festival headliners 2023
Image credit: Nanna Heitmann
Copenhagen Photo Festival is happy to announce the six solo artists who have been selected as this year's headliners at Copenhagen Photo Festival 2023. This summer, photographs will literally be sprouting all over Copenhagen, when the selected six photographers engage with the theme rewilding and present us with new perspectives on an important, current topic.
The six solo artists exhibiting at Copenhagen Photo Festival 2023 explore this year’s theme rewilding in the widest sense of the concept and the complexities it entails. From the rewilding of nature to climate issues and diversity to the rewilding of other spheres e.g. bodies, society, social structures or art in itself.
From Magnum and AI photography to rewilding street photos and flower portraits
Each artist present their own perspective on rewilding and engages with it in an intriguing way – from classic photography techniques , AI technology, 'rewilded' street photography to portrait photography with a green twist, critical climate narratives and documentary photos, where stories about identity, healing and belonging sprout in new ways.
The six announced solo artist for the 2023 festival are:
Rewilding dilemmas
The concept rewilding refers to a process of letting nature regulate itself without human interference. Instead of ‘caring’ for nature in a way that serves human purposes or profits, rewilding seeks to restore, repair, cure or even heal nature in a sustainable way that serves nature in itself and aids our gasping climate and biodiversity. The concept has flourished in recent years and proposes solutions but also contests existing (man-made) structures and power relations.
We look forward to presenting the works of each artist with a solo exhibition at our festival centre on Refshaleøen or in the public space of Copenhagen.
Open Call Shortlist 2023
THE FIRST FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE SPRING
This year's open call shortlist is now official, and like a true harbinger of spring, it signals that this year's festival preparations are now really picking up speed. A total of nine artists have been selected from a strong field of several hundred photographers and artists from more than 40 countries, all of whom have engaged in the theme of 'rewilding'.
The shortlist reveals a widely branched field, where classic photo techniques, AI technology, 'rewilded' street photography and classic portrait photography with a green twist mix with critical climate narratives and images where stories about identity and belonging sprout in new ways.
We, Copenhagen Photo Festival, and the programme committee would like to thank all of this year's open call applicants. It has been a pleasure to experience the inspiring approaches to the theme and not least the diverse and innovative palette of photographic tools that the artists have used.
We look forward to unveiling the selected solo artists exhibiting at the festival this summer on March 1st.
See the all the shortlisted artists
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FORÅRETS FØRSTE FESTIVALSBEBUDER
Årets open call shortlist blev i denne uge offentliggjort på vores hjemmeside, og som en ægte forårsbebuder signalerer den, at årets festivalforberedelser nu for alvor tager fart. I alt ni kunstnere er blevet udvalgt blandt et stærkt felt på flere hundrede fotografer og kunstnere fra mere end 40 lande, der alle har engageret sig i temaet 'rewilding'.
Shortlisten afslører et vidt forgrenet felt, hvor klassiske fototeknikker, AI-teknologi, 'rewildet' street fotografi og klassisk portrætfotografi med et grønt tvist blander sig med kritiske klimafortællinger og billeder, hvor fortællinger om identitet og tilhørsforhold spirer på nye måder.
Vi, Copenhagen Photo Festival, og programudvalget ønsker at takke alle årets open call ansøgere. Det har været en fornøjelse at opleve de inspirerende tilgange til temaet samt ikke mindst den mangfoldige og nyskabende palette af fotografiske værktøjer, som kunstnerne har benyttet.
Vi ser frem til at løfte sløret for de udvalgte solokunstnere, der udstiller på festivalen til sommer, den 1. marts.
Se alle de shortlistede kunstnere her
Colour Up Your Black Week – Support the Arts
Photo credit: Farzad Soleimani
Black Week is upon us and maybe you also feel the weight of consumerism on your shoulders? In that case we want to give you an art loving Black Friday alternative that can colour up the blackest week of the year!
As a special treat we have planned a classic two-for-one offer: you get to both support the arts (aka CPF) and you get free festival entrance at next year’s festival 1-11 June for just DKK 200. What a treat!
A supportive gesture
“Why should I do this? What do I get out of it?”, you might think – and we totally understand. Feel free to swipe on. However, this small gesture would help our work immensely. Like many cultural institutions and festivals we also face challenging times right now, and we hope for your support so we can keep exhibiting and promoting the art of photography in our region.
Every donation or ticket sold matter
Copenhagen Photo Festival is a small non-profit organisation which relies primarily on funding from private funds and the municipality of Copenhagen. So any contribution – via ticket sales or donations – makes the world to us and can help secure our work exhibiting exceptional photography as well as the organisation behind.
Any donation - even a small one – will help us keep up our work highlighting and exhibiting the best of international contemporary photography, promoting international and emerging photo artists and contributing to a strong photo scene in our region.
To support our work you can
- Buy an Early Bird Festival Ticket, DKK 100 (until 1 January)
- Support us and be a Patron of the Arts, DKK 200
- Make a donation, any amount