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.
Rewilding: Panel debates at festival center
Rewilding, sustainability and artificial intelligence
In collaboration with FUTURES Photography Platform we invite you to participate in a series of panel debates about art in relation to rewilding, sustainability and artificial intelligence on 1 and 2 June. The participating panelists are a mix of the exhibiting artists and invited speakers from the Danish and international art scene including Carina Hammer, head of sustainability at Louisiana, Majken Overgaard from Korridor, Raphaël Biollay, curator at Images Vevey and others.
CPF always put great focus on the architectural and spatial aspects when selecting artists and when designing specific exhibitions. Our considerations are led by a principle of sustainability, finding creative ways to blur the border between our exhibitions and the nature and atmosphere of our exhibition park at Refshaleøen in Central Copenhagen. Focusing on photography, architecture and sustainability is therefore at the core of our DNA as a photo festival.
Inspirational panels about the future of art and photography
The panels are thus sprung out of our overarching theme of 2023 and is a nod homage to Copenhagen’s celebration as World Capital of Architecture in 2023 which focuses on sustainability. The panels take place in a double tipi in the center of our rewilded exhibition park and seek to inspire, explore the theme, and not least give space to networking across national and cultural borders and across professional circles and industries within culture.
Programme
Rewilding art and photography – a sustainable arts practice
Public panel discussions 1 and 2 June
1 June - 1 pm-4 pm: A sustainable art’s practice – moderated by Imagine5
Artists and experts in the panel: Carina Hammer, head of sustainability at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, artist Alice Pallot (FR), photographer Daniel Hinks (CH/UK) and Krzysztof Candrowicz, curator, founder of Fotofestiwal Lodz and Jacob Theilgaard, director of Bæredygtigt Kulturliv.nu
2 June - 10 am-1 pm: Art in Public Space
Is the future of art to be more public – is it more sustainable, more democratic? Possibilities and challenges.
Artists and experts in the panel: CPF solo artists Erik Berglin (SE), Hilla Kurki (FI) and Kristina Knipe (US), Raphaël Biollay, curator at Images Vevey and Louise Fiil Hansen, partner and design director at SLA Architects.
2 June - 2-3:30 pm: Panel discussion about future aspects
Artificial intelligence, utopias and science.
Artists and experts in the panel: CPF solo artist Craig Ames (UK), Futures 2023 talent Susanne Fagerlund (SE) and Futures artist Daniel Szalai (HU) and Majken Overgaard (DK) from Korridor and Lisa Giomar Hydén from Fotografiska in Stockholm..
NB! Limited seats – book in Billetto in the event links above
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
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
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.
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.
Spring is here – and so is this year’s poster
This year’s amazing festival poster and our new springlike logo colour are here to mark the beginning of the festival season and a truly rewilded festival experience at this year’s festival! And we have been looking so much forward to sharing it with you.
The poster image is created by one of this year’s headliners in the festival center, Craig Ames, whose photographs are inspired by the English botanist and photographer Anna Atkins and her photographic record of botanical specimens ‘Photographs of British Algae – Cyanotype Impressions’ (1843-1853).
Like Atkins’ work once did, Ames’ is created using one of the cutting-edge imaging technologies we have at our disposal today, AI, for his series ‘Photographs of British Algae – AI Impressions’ (2022).
The AI rewilded image
Through processes of text-to-image AI the name of the real algae, in this case the one known by its Latin name Lichina confinis, has evolved into this almost creature-like flower that makes you wonder about nature, technology and the rewilding and diversity of art in itself.
In his project Ames uses a broad sample of the Latin names of the specimens that Atkins photographed and processed through a text-to-image AI generator, producing a body of work which was labelled and catalogued to create a new visual taxonomy of simulated algae. In this way, the simulacra intentionally distorts the boundaries between the real and the artificial, highlighting the growing disconnect between the natural world and the simulated hyperreality.
A rewilded festival season has begun
The launch of the festival poster marks the beginning of the festival season for us and you can count on a lot more content on our platforms in the next two months about all the artists, exhibitions, talks and workshops that will sprout from this year's rewilded festival edition!
Get your tickets for the festival here.