Copenhagen Photo Festival is ready with an ambitious anniversary program

Copenhagen Photo Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary with a strong program where the biggest agendas of the time – from climate and mental health challenges to migration crises, war and connectedness to nature – are taken under critical photographic treatment. Under the heading '15 Copenhagen Photo Selectees 2024 - 15 years of celebrating photography', the festival has selected 15 artists, including four international main names, who offer refreshing and thought-provoking perspectives on this year's theme 'Entanglement'. The anniversary is celebrated throughout Copenhagen on the 6th-16th. June.

With 'Entanglement' as a prism, the photo festival opens its 15th anniversary edition engaging with the many ways in which we are connected. In front are four solo exhibitions by the artists Chloé Azzopardi, Marcus DeSieno, Mafalda Rakoš and Emanuele Occhipinti, as well as a larger group exhibition that illuminates our connectedness and entanglement across time, place and relationships in new and surprising ways.

"Our audience can look forward to experiencing four solo artists who work very differently with the photographic medium and are passionate about conveying deeply current agendas. These four are particularly suitable to be brought into play in the festival's unique surroundings on Refshaleøen," says festival director Maja Dyrehauge Gregersen. "The four solo exhibitions bring this year's theme into play in tangible ways, where the audience is invited up close in workshops, talks and panel debates."

A hopeful future without resources?
In her photographic works, the French artist Chloé Azzopardi reflects on the future in a world without natural resources. Her project ‘Non Technological Devices' takes us on an imaginary futuristic journey and introduces us to her creative world of homemade low-tech sci-fi sculptures created from materials found in nature.

American Power Landscapes on the Mexican Border
American artist Marcus DeSieno's series of wetplate photographs ‘Geography of Disappearance 'is a critical examination of the landscape of the US-Mexico border and the deliberate repression of migrants attempting to cross it. His in-depth project reveals power structures deeply embedded in the American landscape and history.

Mental health issues and connection to the forces of nature
Mafalda Rakoš' 'All in this together' is a nuanced study of the human condition during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Rakoš delves into the experiences of this turbulent period through four protagonists, each navigating the labyrinth of social isolation and struggling with addiction or eating disorders triggered by the pandemic.

In 'A Muntagna', Italian documentary photographer Emanuele Occhipinti explores the deep, ambiguous and emotional connections between the sleeping volcanic beauty, Mount Etna in Sicily, and the locals who have lived on the volcano's slopes for centuries.

We are connected across borders, time and relationships
In addition to the four solo exhibitions, 11 selected artists show their perspective on the theme in a group exhibition. Here, the viewer is taken on a tour de force in diversity and experiences on how we are connected, for better or for worse, over time and place. And not least how our entanglement with each other and the world leave traces in our close relationships as well as the interaction between the body and the mind.

In Nostalgic Analogue Photographers, Ukrainian Vic Bakin examines the consequences of war for young men. They were developed in his apartment in Kyiv during the Russian bombing. Natalia Kepesz also touches on Russia's status as an aggressor when she examines what everyday life is like for neighbors living next door to the European-Russian border.

Identity struggle, kidnapping and colonialism
In Toby Binder's black-and-white photographs, the Nordic youth and their unequal struggle against the conflicts and enmity of older generations are dwelt upon. Jansen van Staden also tries to come to terms with a burdened past when he examines his own South African history in an attempt to find his identity as a young white man. Danish Christine Lorenzen has also thrown herself into the identity struggle of youth life with a clear grey-toned, intimate-personal aesthetic.

Lamees Saleh's project gives voice, face and hope to some of the many thousands of kidnapped children and their families in Egypt. Yuxing Chen examines her own encounter with the West's mistaken interpretations, imitations and appropriation of Chinese culture.

How do you instill hope in the midst of a climate crisis?
Andi Galdi Vinko's pictures tease parents' problem of explanation when the children start asking if they will have to run from fires when they grow up. Seif Kousmate poetically illuminates the special culture-nature of the oases, which is disappearing due to climate change.

Bjørn Nilsson asks how we can continue to overcome everyday life and each other in our close relationships. Katerina Tsakiri examines her own mental strength when serious illness has taken over her body.

The festival pays tribute to emerging Nordic talents
Copenhagen Photo Festival has the pleasure of presenting five new selected talents from the Nordics through the Creative Europe program FUTURES Photography. This year the festival is pleased to be able to present Barbara Marstrand (DK), Emma Sarpaniemi (FI), Frederik Danielsen (DK), Jenni Toivonen (FI) and Mathias Eis (DK) as their selected Nordic talents.

In 2024, the Copenhagen Photo Festival is supported by the Municipality of Copenhagen, Creative Europe, the Augustinus Foundation, the Nordea Foundation, the Austrian Embassy, the French Embassy and the Italian Embassy.

Read more about the Copenhagen Photo Festival at https://copenhagenphotofestival.com.

With best regards
HAVE Communication

For further information, please contact:
Sara Jeppesen · sara@have.dk · 22 41 00 48
Maya Fernel · maya@have.dk · 40 15 35 51
Christine Almlund · press@copenhagenphotofestival.com · 31 37 72 23

About the Copenhagen Photo Festival
On the 6th-16th June 2024, the Nordic region’s largest photo festival celebrates its 15th anniversary. The festival is held in close collaboration with galleries, museums and cultural institutions in Copenhagen and southern Sweden. Each year, established and emerging photographers from all over the world contribute, and the festival is expected to be visited by approx. 50,000 people. This year, the festival puts photography on the agenda under the theme 'Entanglement' via exhibitions, workshops, talks, portfolio reviews and social events.