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
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
Festival warm up this week
Image credit: Michael Kenna Wanaka is part of Des Oiseaux opening at Landskrona Photo 12 May
Pop-ups, exhibition openings, artist talks – what is happening this week? Until the festival opens we will highlight current events in our weekly newsletter and Instagram account to help you navigate the many events and exhibitions.
Sign up here for the newsletter
Only three weeks to go before we can celebrate the Grand opening of Copenhagen Photo Festival 2023 on 1 June together. We are looking so much forward to it this year and the many great events, performances and talks we will sprinkle on top!
However, you may have noticed that several of our partner venues have already begun the celebration of contemporary photography and camera-based art across our region ahead of us and we can only encourage you to explore all the available exhibitions and events now in our exhibition programme, e.g. Various Photographers at Landskrona Foto, Craig Ames at Landkrona Foto, and Jesper Rasmussen at Galerie MøllerWitt.
Get an overview below or click here to explore the programme
Image Credits: Paolo Pellegrin at Landskrona Foto / Craig Ames at Landskrona Foto / Jesper Rasmussen at Galerie MøllerWitt
Join us for the Grand Opening 1 June!
Image credit: Kristina Knipe, solo artist 2023
We have been looking so much forward to this! Finally we can invite you to the Grand Opening of Copenhagen Photo Festival 2023 and unveil an amazing programme for a lovely afternoon in great company on 1 June – we look forward to celebrating contemporary photography in the Danish capital for the 13th time with you!
The Grand Opening 2023 of Copenhagen Photo Festival is celebrated with happy hour, DJ, a ‘rewilded’ photo performance and guided tours by the exhibiting artists and curators in our venue FRAME and the surrounding exhibition park.
A rewildet festival experience
The 2023 edition has a particular focus on the overarching theme, ‘rewilding’, and Copenhagen as UNESCO’s World Capital of Architecture in 2023. From 1 to 11 June the festival center and the surrounding wilderness will host no less than 13 exhibitions with around 60 artists and numerous performances, talks, workshops and family activities full of creativity and experimentation.
Exhibitions opening at the festival center
Hiding from Baba Yaga // Nanna Heitmann · Photographs of British Algae - AI Impressions // Craig Ames · Talisman // Kristina Knipe · Almost all the flowers in my mothers garden // Hilla Kurki · The Sunshiners; Code Red in Green China // Daniel Hinks · The bird project // Erik Berglin · On the Verge // FUTURES group exhibition · 2022 Paris Photo – Aperture Photo Book Awards · IMPACT // Atla · DMJX · KBH Film&Fotoskole · Oslo Met · VERA skole for kunst og design
The opening event is free and open for all from 4 to 7 pm
We look forward to seeing you!
Best wishes
Copenhagen Photo Festival
Check out all exhibitions and activities at the festival center
Festival warm up at our partner venues
Image credit: Roger Ballen is part of Des Oiseaux opening at Landskrona Photo 12 May
Pop-ups, exhibition openings, artist talks – what is happening this week? Until the festival opens we will highlight current events in our weekly newsletter and Instagram account to help you navigate the many events and exhibitions.
Sign up here for the newsletter
Only four weeks to go before we can celebrate the Grand opening of Copenhagen Photo Festival 2023 on 1 June together. We are looking so much forward to it this year and the many great events, performances and talks we will sprinkle on top!
However, you may have noticed that several of our partner venues have already begun the celebration of contemporary photography and camera-based art across our region ahead of us and we can only encourage you to explore all the available exhibitions and events now in our exhibition programme, e.g. Refik Anadol at Arken, Marie Hald at Det nationalhistoriske museum, Hyung S. Kim at M/S Maritime Museum, Richard Prince at Louisiana and much more.
Get an overview below or click here to explore the programme
Image Credits: Maja Daniels at Galleri Format / Janne Klerk at Johannes Larsen Museum / Richard Prince at Louisiana Museumof Modern art
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
From Landskrona to Falsterbo
Image credits: Paolo Pellegrin
Most of the festival exhibition partners are based in the Copenhagen region. However, this year we are happy to also present three photo based exhibition venues in the southern Sweden region of Scania – from Landskrona to Falsterbo. It is the perfect occasion for you to cross the bridge and take a day trip to visit one or all of our Swedish partners.
You can find them in 3 different locations: Falsterbo, Malmö, and Landskrona. This selection of exhibitions could be a good excuse to explore Scania and organise a photo exhibition-road trip to visit them all.
Starting May 12th, at Landskrona Foto, you will find 2 exhibitions. One of them is “Des Oiseaux”, presented for the first time in Sweden. It is a collection of photographs from 13 international photographers, including Roger Ballen, Graciela Iturbide and Paolo Pellegrin. They bear witness to the variety of environments populated by birds and remind us of the threat posed by climate change. At the same place, if you want to see more of one of our headliners you can also visit Craig Ames’ outdoor exhibition. You probably know him if you follow us - he is the artist behind this year’s intriguing poster. In his project “Photographs of British Algae - AI Impressions”, he uses artificial intelligence to recreate specimens introduced by English botanist and photographer Anna Atkins (1799-1871) in the world’s first photobook and photographic-based record of botanical specimens.
If you decide to go further South, past Malmö, you can visit Falsterbo Photo Art Museum that presents Helmut Newton’s exhibition “Provokateur”, which recently opened in the privately funded museum. Newton has been called the world’s greatest fashion photographer of all time. In this new exhibition you can find more than 100 numbered and signed original photographs. Many of the most famous images will be shown alongside a number of rarely presented photographs, which makes the exhibition unique for Scandinavia.
If you only have time for a short trip to Sweden we can highly recommend hopping on the train and visiting Galleri Format in the center of Malmö. Here you can explore the mythical work of Swedish photographer Maja Daniels, who recently won a Swedish book award for her latest photo book. In the exhibition “On the Silence of Myth” she shows new work. “Within this series I use photography as a tool for myth making. A myth can be used to make sense of the world and oral traditions are often based on myths and folklore as a way of learning and sharing, but these myths exist within the boundaries of the unspoken”.
To learn more about the exhibitions, click on their title in the text above.