Exhibition // Nanna Heitmann - Hiding from Baba Yaga
Hiding from Baba Yaga is a project created along the Yenisei River in Russia and the wildness around it. This land has been for centuries a place where nature can exist freely and where nomadic people have settled. Most remote parts of it have also been the refuge for criminals, political escapees or adventurers. With Stalin, the Yenisei became a place of exile and forced labour. The shape of the land changed and big lakes were constructed; villages disappeared and the climate changed. Nowadays, with globalisation, people are more attracted to living in cities, but the Yenisei River continues to be a space for dreamers and loners to escape the worldly world. Baba Yaga is a character from the Slavic folklore portrayed as a witch in various fairy tales, like the one in which she chases a little girl named Vasilisa through the forest.
In her series Hiding from Baba Yaga, she portrays the people and the way of living in this area. Here, different people with different backgrounds come together. Among the protagonists there is Yuri who lives along the river and came here because all his friends died from alcohol or drugs. Further away lives Valentin, a self-proclaimed anarch-ecologist who moved here after being traumatised by the war. All those stories are drastically different from one another and show different life situations. Despite everything, they all ended up at the same place and are somehow connected by the Yenisei River: a land of freedom and escapism from a tough reality.
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.
