Landskrona Foto Festival grows
The interest shown in Landskrona Foto Festival has exceeded all expectations. The first edition in 2013 met with positive surprise, but also many expressions of a desire to see more. This year’s festival, which took place at the end of August, had its central exhibition built up around the internationally acknowledged photographers Nan Goldin, Bertien van Manen, Eva Klasson and Rinko Kawauchi. The number of visitors was so high that the festival management has now decided that the 2015 festival will be extended to cover two weekends. The opening ceremony will be on the evening of 20 August and the festival will end after ten days on 30 August.
This year the festival’s artistic leader, Thomas H Johnsson, invited JH Engström as guest curator. Their collaboration worked so well that it will be taken further in 2015 so that the two photographers will be a team of artistic leaders.
“In the starting period of a festival it is essential to have continuity. The energy we feel after this year’s festival is something we want to follow up so that we can take Landskrona Foto Festival one step further. At the same time, it is important that people are clear about who the sender is, to create a credible and cohesive festival,” says Thomas H Johnsson.
“The question of documentary versus fiction (and vice versa) is more topical than ever. And inexhaustible. This will be a clear starting point for our work. Jean-Luc Godard’s classical quotation sums up the direction of the 2015 festival: ‘If you want to make a documentary you should automatically go to the fiction, and if you want to nourish your fiction you have to come back to reality,’” Thomas concludes.
Landskrona Foto Festival is an intimate, well-integrated festival in the lovely city centre, where existing cultural institutions, available shop premises and the public space provide a varied arena for challenging and thought-provoking photography.
“By extending the festival to ten days we create an opportunity for more people to visit the festival, without feeling the stress of having to rush through everything on offer in just one day,” says Göran Nyström, who will take over at New Year as administrative manager of Landskrona Foto Festival.
Contact
Thomas H Johnsson Göran Nyström
0739-15 30 35 0709-47 05 82
@LaFotoFestival @Fotostad
Facebook.com/LandskronaFotofestival
Landskrona Foto Festival is part of a serious venture by Landskrona City to create a new centre in Sweden for the photographic image, based on both exhibition activities and research. Sweden’s first proper museum of photographic history is a part of the project.
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