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