FOTOFESTIWAL, Lodz, Poland, May 7th – 31st, 2009

From their site: “Even people who deal with photography on a daily basis find it difficult to choose what is important and worth attention from the profusion of “photographic works” of the last years. It is not easy to follow every novelty, change, interesting names and ideas. Slideshows and curator presentations are an attempt to update the recent changes and trends in the European photography.

We invited curators from six countries to help us create this programme. Each of them was asked to make a subjective choice of artists and photo projects that best reflect the character and condition of current photography of a given country.

The presentations is comprised of two parts. The first part consists of lectures during which the curators will present their latest photo discoveries and will try to explain their choice of projects. The second part consists of night slideshows with music prepared especially for the Fotofestiwal.”

CURATORS:

Austria – Martin Breindl
France – Jim Casper
Greece – Nina Kassianou
Ireland – Peggy Sue Amison
Italy – Alessandra  Capodacqua
Poland – Tomasz Ferenc

* * *

AUSTRIA

Curator: Martin Breindl
FLUSS – Society for the Promotion of Photo and Media Art, Wolkersdorf, Austria

Martin Breindl, born 1963 in Vienna, Austria, is a media artist, theoretician and curator. He is the founder of alien productions (in collaboration with Andrea Sodomka, Norbert Math and August Black), an artists’ network dealing with new technology and media. He works in the fields of media performance, installation, net art, radio art, sound art, video art and visual arts. Since 2001, he has been one of the curators of FLUSS – society for the promotion of photo and media art, based in Wolkersdorf, Austria; since 2005, he has also been a co-curator of the International Photographic Triennial Backlight.

SLIDESHOWS:
8th of May – Friday (08:30 pm – EC1, 1/3 Targowa St., Lodz )

Artists and Projects:
Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber – Plugged In, Fenced Out
Eva Brunner-Szabo – Bandages I, III, VII
Robert F. Hammerstiel – Private Stories II & Alles in bester Ordnung IV
Sabine Maier – Commo-nice!
Herwig Turk – Agents

* * *

FRANCE

Curator: Jim Casper
Lens Culture – photography and shared territories (online magazine)

Jim Casper is the editor and publisher of Lens Culture – an international online magazine celebrating contemporary photography, art, media, and world cultures. Each day, the site attracts between 5,000 and 6,000 unique visitors from more than 50 countries.

Jim also curates arts exhibitions, writes about photography and culture for magazines and books, lectures, reviews portfolios, coordinates events and workshops, collaborates in formal partnerships to promote and publicize important international photography events and conferences, and serves as an international artists’ agent.

SLIDESHOWS:
8th of May – Friday
08:30 pm – EC1, 1/3 Targowa St., Lodz

Artists and Projects:
Denis Darzacq – Hyper
JR – Women are Heroes
Eric Tabuchi – 26 Abandoned Gasoline Stations
Alexei Vassiliev – Troubled Moments
Guilaume Zuili – Fragments

* * *

GREECE

Curator: Nina Kassianou
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece

Phd in History of Photography. She is collaborating as an exhibition curator and photography book editor with the Museum of Photography in Thessaloniki. Permanently working as a curator for Gallery M55 in Athens which promotes work of Greek and European young photographers.

She has organized many individual and group exhibitions in Greece and in Europe. As a reviewer she has participated in many festivals in Europe. She is one of the contributors to the the 1st Cyclopedia of European Photography presenting the Greek part.

SLIDESHOWS:
8th of May – Friday
10:30 pm – Jazzga Club, 17 Piotrkowska St., Lodz (open air event)

Artists and Projects:

Athina Chroni – People – 3D photographs
Haris Kakarouhas – Square Icons
Evangelia Kranioti – Au moment X
Costas Ordolis – Bodies, Masks & Cities
Ioanna Ralli – Archetypes of the Feminine

* * *

IRELAND

Peggy Sue Amison
Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland

In her position as Artistic Director at Sirius Arts Centre in Ireland for over 8 years, Peggy Sue Amison has curated numerous photographic and other visual arts exhibitions with artists from around the world. She also facilitates the development of new works through the international artist-in-residency programme at Sirius, often partnering artists and organisations together on projects.

A photographic artist herself, Peggy has also written critical essays and reviews for numerous photographic publications internationally and serves as a reviewer at meeting places for photographers at different photographic festivals. An important part of her work at Sirius is focused on raising the level of discourse about photography in Ireland through all of the above.

POKAZY SLAJDÓW:
9th of May – Saturday
09:00 pm – Jazzga Club, 17 Piotrkowska St., Lodz (open air event)

Artists and Projects:
Mark Curran – The Breathing Factory
David Farrell – Nè vicino Nè lontano. A Lugo // Neither Close, nor Far. Lugo
Seán Hillen – The Troubles
Jackie Nickerson – Faith
Eoin O’ Conaill – Common Place

* * *

ITALY

Curator: Alessandra Capodacqua
Fondazione Studio Marangoni – Center of Contemporary Photography in Florence

Alessandra Capodacqua has curated exhibitions in Italy and abroad, among others the Backlight Triennial Festival of Photography in Tampere, Finland. She has also been invited at portfolio reviews such as Photolucida – Critical Mass (USA); Mission Jeunes Artistes, Toulouse (France); Photo Triennale Hamburg (Germany).

She teaches photography at New York University in Florence, and creative photography – including pinhole and toy cameras, alternative printing techniques. Currently lives and works in Florence.

SLIDESHOWS:
8th of May – Friday
10:30 pm – Jazzga Club, 17 Piotrkowska St., Lodz (open air event)

Artists and Projects:

Fabio Barile – Among
Alessandro Destro – Suspect Behaviour
Simone Donati – Crimean Tatars, Return to the Motherland
Silvia Noferi – Hôtel Rêverie
Elisabetta Senesi – Handle With Care

* * *

POLAND

Curator: Tomasz Ferenc
Department of Sociology of Culture, University of Lodz, Poland

Tomasz Ferenc (1973), member of Fundation of Visual Education in Lodz. Works as a academic teacher and researcher at the University of Lodz (Department of Sociology, Chair Sociology of Art). His PhD thesis ware devoted to social aspect of using and understanding photography. His main subject is sociology of photography and visual anthropology. He is interested in possibilities of using photography during research process.

He has edited and co-edited five books focused on different aspects of this medium (two of them will be printed this year). He cooperates with some photo magazines in Poland and publishes scientific and popular articles. Now he is more involved in practice of photography than in theory, as it has been for many years. With some others photographers he works on project devoted to oppressive aspects of architecture.

SLIDESHOWS:
9th of May – Saturday
09:00 pm – Jazzga Club, 17 Piotrkowska St., Lodz (open air event)

Artists:
Anita Andrzejewska – Nur-e jan
Konrad Grajner – 44 War-schau
Magdalena Kmiecik – Space Between
Michal Przezdzik – Still Life
Dominika Truszczynska – Glimpses of Infinity

* * *

via Fotofestiwal