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
GRAND OPENING of Copenhagen Photo Festival
You are invited to the Grand Opening of Copenhagen Photo Festival 2023 an an amazing 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.
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
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
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
Exhibition // Janne Klerk - Spejlinger
Photographer Janne Klerk has created an exhibition about absorption, nature and the cosmos.
Janne Klerk’s depictions of the landscape of Denmark are practically classics. This time she focuses on natural phenomena that are experienced at close range, but which involve broader perspectives. Her project, “Reflections at the Foot of Heaven” consists of photographs taken of one particular pond that measures 100 m. in diameter and takes 5 minutes to walk around. The core message of the exhibition consists of a series of photographic reflections which bring humans and the cosmos into play and bring nature right into the exhibition space. A book accompanies the exhibition, by Janne Klerk, with texts by author Gitte Broeng and astrophysicist and professor Anja C. Andersen. The exhibition at the Johannes Larsen Museum puts Janne Klerk’s newest project into meaningful relation with some of her earlier photographic projects from Denmark and other countries; it gives a perspective to her occupation with reflections as a varied phenomenon.
Opening hours
Monday - Sunday: 10:00 - 17:00
Exhibition // Refik Anadol - Nature Dreams
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) 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 will present three works at ARKEN, one of them created especially for this exhibition. 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 ever-changing 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 new work of art
For the exhibition, Refik Anadol will create 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.
Opening hours
Wednesday - Sunday: 11:00 - 17:00
Thursday: 11:00 - 21:00
Monday - Tuesday: Closed
August Sander
English below
Louisiana viser nu et udvalg på mere end 250 fotografier af August Sanders livsværk ”Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts” (Mennesket i det 20. århundrede). Sanders værk er et enestående gruppeportræt af det tyske samfund under Weimarrepublikken. og det står som en klassiker i såvel europæisk foto- som kunsthistorie. På Louisiana vises det som en selvstændig del af en ny, stor udstilling 'Det Kolde Øje -Tyskland i 1920'erne' om tysk kunst og kulturliv for 100 år siden.
August Sander (1876-1964) påbegyndte for alvor sit banebrydende, dokumentariske projekt ‘Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts’ (Mennesker i det 20. århundrede) midt i 1920’erne ud fra ønsket om at dokumentere og klassificere “alt det, der kendetegner det universelt menneskelige”. Her satte han sig for at portrættere såvel fremtrædende som anonyme tyskere fra alle samfundslag i en enkel og nøgtern stil og inddele dem i kategorier.
Sander inddelte selv sin typologi af det tyske samfund i syv grupper, som det også fremgår af udstillingen. Her er bonden, håndværkeren, kvinden, stænderne, kunstnerne, storbyen og de sidste mennesker (de ekskluderede). Samlet præsenterer fotografierne et tværsnit af samfundet fra bønderne og deres håndværk til de revolutionære i byerne, autoriteterne og de marginaliserede.
Kendetegnende for August Sanders projekt var, at han portrætterede alle med den samme distance og værdighed. Han giver sine landsmænd mulighed for at posere, med front lige mod kameraet, så de fremstår velovervejet og i deres naturlige omgivelser.
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August Sander
A selection of more than 250 photographs of August Sander's life’s work “Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts” (People of the 20th Century) forms an independent part of the exhibition about Germany in the 1920s. This unique group portrait of German society during the Weimar Republic stands as a classic in both European photographic and art history.
August Sander is shown as part of The Cold Gaze – Germany in the 1920’s , a collaboration with Centre Pompidou, Paris.
August Sander (1876-1964) truly embarked on his ground-breaking documentary project ‘Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts’ (People of the 20th Century) in the mid-1920s out of the desire to document and classify “all the characteristics of the universally human”. Here he set out to portray both prominent and anonymous Germans from all parts of society in a simple and matter-of-fact pictorial style, while dividing them into seven categories.
Sander’s monumental image atlas, which exemplifies distinctive ‘types’ in order to let the individual step into character at the same time, constitutes a unique group portrait of German society during the Weimar Republic. Though he would lose the larger part of his negatives in a fire in 1946, his project is so all encompassing, courageuos and ambitious, that it stands unrivalled in European art and photography history.
Photo Credit:
Polizeibeamter. Der Herr Wachtmeister (Politibetjent), 1925
Sølvgelatine-print, 22,5 x 15,7 cm.
Die Photographische Sammlung SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne
© 2021 Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur - August Sander
Nominated to Byens Bedste 2022
English text below
Nomineret til Byens Bedste 2022
"Copenhagen Photo Festival rykkede igen i år ind på museer i København – med Refshaleøen som centrum. Som en af Europas største har festivalen et væld af interessante udstillinger og temaer at gå om bord i – i år blandt andet vietnamesiske Hien Hoang, som bidrog med »Asia Bistro – Made in Rice«, hvor hun stiller skarpt på indgroede forestillinger om asiatisk kultur.
Årets festival var også særlig, da den gav et indblik i krigen i Ukraine med udstillingen »The Thin Line«, som bestod af billeder taget af ukrainske fotografer, der skulle have udstillet på Odesa Photo Days. I stedet har de portrætteret krigen i både byer og på landet."
Sådan skriver Berlingske i deres indstilling til nomineringen af Copenhagen Photo Festival som Byens Bedste Oplevelse 2022.
Stem og hjælp os med at vinde
Vi er super stolte over at være blandt de blot fem nominerede i kategorien Byens Bedste Oplevelse 2022, for som Berlingske skriver “Der er altid noget at give sig til i København. Oplevelser venter om hvert et gadehjørne. Men hvilken oplevelse har været den bedste det seneste år?”
Vi håber naturligvis, at du synes, at vores fotofestival har været Byens Bedste Oplevelse i år. Festivalen fejrer fotografiet i store og små gallerier, museer og udstillingssteder i hele København samt i vores festivalcentrum på Refshaleøen.
Vi håber, at så mange som muligt vil bakke op og stemme på os. Det er et flot selskab af oplevelser, vi er nomineret sammen med, så hver stemme tæller! Vinderen findes dels via en åben afstemning samt af en Jury bestående af AOK-redaktionens genreredaktører.
Hop ind og stem på os her!
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Nominated to Byens Bedste 2022
What wonderful news! Copenhagen Photo Festival has just been nominated to Byens Bedste Oplevelse 2022 (Copenhagen’s Best Event 2022) by the Danish national newspaper Berlingske and its Copenhagen section AOK!!
We are so thrilled! The prize is given every year to the best event in Copenhagen – this year for the 21st time! We are super proud to be among the just five nominated in the category Byens Bedste Oplevelse. Because as Berlingske writes “There is always something to do in Copenhagen. New events/experiences are just around every street corner. But which one has been the best the past year?”
We really hope that you think that it is our festival! Copenhagen Photo Festival celebrates photography across Copenhagen in galleries, museums and exhibition spaces as well as at our Festival Center on Refshaleøen.
Help us win!
The winner of the best event of the city is found partly by votes and partly by a jury consisting of editors of the newspaper. The event with most votes obviously has a great advantage. Therefore we hope you will support our nomination – it would truly mean the world to us being a small non-profit festival! Please note you do not have to be a resident of Copenhagen or Denmark to participate in the vote – you can vote wherever you are in the world!
Hop in and vote for us here!
Help us get better!
Photo: Skabertrang by Aftenskolen Fountain House at Den Sociale Blomsterhave, photo by Hans Vedsted.
We are very curious to hear how your experience of this year’s Copenhagen Photo Festival was? What did you like? What would you like more of and how can the festival best meet your expectations in the future?
As a festival that wants to evolve creatively and organically, meet our visitors in the best possible way and present new innovative exhibitions, emerging and established artists as well as present you with great events in a nice setting, we are always open to suggestions, constructive ideas and new partnerships.
It only takes 5 minutes!
We therefore hope you will use 5 minutes of your time to fill out a short survey about your festival experience. You can also fill it out, if you did not attend. Either way you may have ideas, comments or suggestions for new paths or partnerships for the festival that could be interesting for us.
If you participate you get the chance to win two tickets for next year's festival. We will find the winner 15 August.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Click here for the English survey
Klik her for at få spørgsmålene på dansk
Photo Festival Blues?
Photo: Lee Miller, solarisation self-portrait
We know the feeling: When all the enriching experiences of the 11 days of festival fun stop and the festival closes down, an urgent feeling of emptiness can set in. However, this year we have made plans to ease your festival blues. We have kept an eye out for lens-based exhibitions opening after the festival. This week three exhibitions open in Copenhagen at Basement in Vesterbro, The Royal Library and at GL Strand.
Emerging artists from KBH Film- og Fotoskole
At the independent exhibition space Basement on Vesterbro you can experience the works of this year's young, emerging artists graduating from KBH Film & Footskole from 16 june to 19 June – so do not hesitate to stop by. It is always enriching to get a peak into the projects of future art photographers. The exhibiting artists are: Ellen Hartmann Andersen, Yasmin Jalilian, Malek Bigum Ben Habhab, Siri Thorup, Pedersen, Oline Nordengaard, Elisabeth Vicoria Friis, Jón Helgi Pálmason, Kasper Søholt, Ditte Blom Nielsen, Anna Murmann Olesen, Emil Pril, Rosa Tiedje Løkken, Julie Marie Rustad, Sara-Sofie Mahony, Sigrid Ellesøe Nielsen, Niels Lensvold, Maria Buhl Christensen, Martin Belusa, Thea Tønnesvang, Emma Fager, Dicte Hostrup Sønnichsen, Josephine Motet Jessen, Sarah Arge.
Dazzling photographs by Lee Miller
The Royal Library also opens a must-see exhibition on 16 June about the photographer, model, business woman, war correspondent and gourmet chef, Elizabeth “Lee” Miller. She lived an extraordinary life herself and on top of that she was also a dazzling photographer. She both documented and played with the photographic medium: The war photographs documenting the horrors of World War II as well as he playful surreel compositions that circled around the fluctuating role of women.
Curator talk and world class contemporary art photography at GL Strand
This week another must-see photography exhibition opens at GL Strand. South African visual activist Zanele Muholi (b.1972) came to prominence in the early 2000s with photographs that told the stories of black lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex lives in South Africa. Today, Zanele Muholi is one of the most significant artists on the international scene. The exhibition at GL STRAND is the first major presentation of Muholi’s work to date in Denmark and includes more than 100 works documenting LGBTQI + in South Africa and presenting the full breadth of Muholi’s career to date. The Exhibition is organized by Tate Modern in collaboration with Kunstforeningen GL Strand, Copenhagen and Bildmuseet at Umeå University.
On 17 June you can meet Yasufumi Nakamori, Senior Curator of International Art (Photography) at Tate Modern in conversation with GL STRAND’s chief curator Anne Kielgast about his collaboration with Zanele Muholi and the making of the exhibition, which is the artist’s first major survey exhibition. The exhibition is curated by Tate Modern in collaboration with GL STRAND. Following the talk there will be a celebration of the opening of the exhibition.
NB! As a special treat, everyone with a Copenhagen Photo Festival 2022 ticket get a 50% discount on the entrance of this exhibition from 18 to 23 June.
Virtual gaming worlds at Øksnehallen
25 June you can experience another type of exhibition, when Øksnehallen opens the exhibition, New Worlds Emerge. The exhibition is part of a collaboration with Fotografisk Center, which shows Char Davies' virtual worlds all summer with Osmose. The exhibition explores the field of video games and how they emerge out of the minds of the creators. The exhibition is not strictly photographic but explores a border country where photography, video and fictitious worlds connects.