Landskrona Foto Festival offers a broader range. And sharpens the message.
Landskrona Foto has the ambitious goal of becoming The Home of Photography in Scandinavia. Besides planning a new knowledge centre, we stage unique exhibitions of historical and contemporary photography – and annually arrange Sweden’s biggest photo festival. While preparing the fourth edition of the latter, Landskrona Foto Festival 2016, a new artistic management has considered the content and the message from new perspectives. There will be an even clearer focus on the professional art photographer and the modes of expression of contemporary photographic art, as well as its aesthetic, ethical and political purposes. And there will be more focus on the visitor as well.
The range on offer at this year’s festival is unusually rich, almost overwhelming, if we are to believe Göran Nyström, head of the festival since it started.
“More than 150 photographers are represented in about twenty exhibitions in Landskrona 19–28 August. World-famous names sandwiched with promising new artists, and many of the exhibited photographs have never before been shown in Sweden or Scandinavia. Some examples at random: There are photographs here by the Hasselblad Prize winner Joan Fontcuberta. An important private European photo collection is on display. To say nothing of the unique exhibition of 150 years of Swedish scientific photography. We are also proud of the Scandinavian premiere of Don’t Blink – Robert Frank, the acclaimed documentary about the world’s most significant living photographer. Final-year students at Akademin Valand are exhibiting. Photobook Day on Saturday 20 August is devoted, among other things, to Russian photobooks. And the nominees for the Landskrona Foto & Breadfield Dummy Award will be presented.”
According to the new artistic management, Jenny Nordquist, gallerist and photographer, and Christian Caujolle, one of Europe’s most respected photo critics and curators, there have been no radical changes to the basic concept. The differences are on another level.
“We have made more space for works of art with moving pictures, video art and installations by artists who have matured in their practice of photography and who reflect on what they want to say – in a world that is currently being shaken by profound crises,” says Jenny Nordquist. “We have chosen not to give the festival a specific isolated theme because that would have limited us. Instead we want to find different expressions that complement each other and give them an opportunity to meet. The programme takes in current issues, such as various concepts of identity – how gender and the self are perceived, what ‘once happened’, and the relationship to nature.”
To a large extent the art has been moved from the festival’s traditional exhibition galleries out into streets, squares and parks. The concept is supposed to get the visitor to discover the city and reflect in practice on what the public space, so often soiled with advertising and commercial interests, looks like or ought to look like.
“Together with Jenny and Christian we have worked to develop the festival in relation to Landskrona’s overall vision of becoming the photographic capital of Sweden, and in a broader perspective, of Scandinavia. It would be strange if this aim could not be visible in the city itself,” declares Göran Nyström.
In the exhibitions at the Citadel, which is being used as a festival venue for the first time this year, this sixteenth-century century setting will see an emphasis on a historical and documentary perspective, while the outdoor installations by contemporary artists will stimulate visitors to reflect on things like today’s challenges of climate change.
“With the presence of artworks in the public space and the increased range of photography involving the visitors, we want to pay tribute to the art of photography; to present artists without whom the festival would not exist; to give visitors something enjoyable to rest their eyes on; to arouse emotions and make us reflect on pictures and what they want to say about today’s society,” Jenny Nordquist concludes.
Landskrona Foto Festival August 19–28 2016:
Ten days of exhibitions, photobooks, seminars, artist talks and more. Over 150 photographers are represented in about 20 exhibitions in Landskrona between August 19–28 2016. Read more: landskronafoto.org/en/festival-2016/
Press Conference:
Wednesday 17/8 11:00 at Landskrona konsthall. The festival’s artistic directors Jenny Nordquist and Christian Caujolle, as well as exhibitors such as Isabelle Darrigrand, Tomasz Kizny and Åsa Johannesson will be present.
Official Opening:
Welcome to the official opening of Landskrona Foto Festival 2016 on Friday August 19 at 20:00. The venue of the opening is Landskrona konsthall where the exhibition Who? – A dialogue between Elina Brotherus and SMITH (Dorothée Smith) will be exhibited during the festival. The opening speaker is Hasse Persson, Artistic Director at Strandverket.
Programme:
landskronafoto.org/en/festival-2016/#PROGRAMME
Press Accreditation:
We welcome the media, press, photographers and journalists to Landskrona Foto Festival 2016. Read more: www.landskronafoto.org/en/#PRESS
Press Images:
landskrona.se/press/pressbilder/
For questions contact:
Göran Nyström
Director, Landskrona Foto
director@landskronafoto.org
+46 (0) 709-47 05 82
Josefin Garpvall
Communications Officer, Landskrona Foto Festival
info@landskronafoto.org
+46 (0) 418-47 05 73
Viktoria Blomberg Book
Festival Coordinator, Landskrona Foto Festival
festival@landskronafoto.org
+46 (0) 73-347 30 24
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