Exhibition // Kristina Knipe - Talisman
In her project Talisman, Kristina Knipe constructs identity through mythology in queer communities in New Orleans. This work examines the material and visual excess created from decadences, masquerades, and healing practice as it relates to the body. The artist’s photographs trace the life of objects, spaces and the body as they are transformed from elements and are being reused. For instance, we see objects disappear and resurface broken in other pictures, bodies change, time transforms people and plants die. In her practice, Kristina Knipe works in close collaboration with the sitters in order to make photographs that reflect individual stories of healing. She adorns them with shared materials to create a transformative experience of pleasure. This process is a queer ritual. “Talisman” works towards a merging and healing of nature, the man-made and the body in a flawed, but beautiful manifestation.
The project portrays people, whose reality consists of the burden of maintaining mental health without having healthcare, of being a person whose role is to make other’s spaces beautiful which by necessity means repurposing objects for their own, of having traumatic experiences with no recourse, cycles of depression in the service of the hospitality industry, expressing gender and sexuality despite judgement, and persisting in generative work through loss. The artist’s story is intertwined with those she photographs. They cohabit spaces and experiences within a community of artists, activists, and healers.
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.
