LEIPZIG.- From July 1st to July 7th, the international photography festival F/Stop Leipzig takes place for the third time. This year, one theme runs through the whole festival: “Where do we go from here?” More than 50 outstanding artists from 15 countries present works that deal with the latitude of an aimless present, in between retrospection, development processes and visions of the future. For more than six months now, the news has been talking about the crisis – it is worth it to look for answers in art.

The Location
F/Stop moves downtown
During the past two years, F/Stop has successfully presented a wide range of young artistic photography on the premises of the former Leipzig cotton-spinning mill and in various small galleries located in the district of Plagwitz. “We don’t want repetition, instead we want F/Stop to reinvent itself each year”, says the festival’s artistic director Kristin Dittrich. The 3^rd F/Stop takes place in the heart of Leipzig, at the historic exhibition hall “Handelshof” which is nearby the market square and used to be the former home of the museum of fine arts. There, the main exhibition “Where do we go from here?” utilizes an area of 2.000 sqm. Entering the world of F/Stop, the visitors leave behind the city center’s hubbub and go on a journey through space and time. The building is going to undergo a complete refurbishment and will be turned into a grand hotel. Inside the halls, old meets new, which is also reflected in the artistic standpoints where traces of the past meet visions of the future.

Artists
Special Guest 2009: Anders Petersen
This year, F/Stop is looking forward to a very special guest: Anders Petersen! He is the founder of contemporary photography in Sweden and above all, one of the best and most intensive photographers worldwide.

Between 1992 and 1995, he photographed the inmates of a psychiatric hospital. His outstanding black-and-white pictures show the psychiatric facility as a possible future of a disturbing presence. It is a visual journey through Thomas Mann’s /Magic Mountain/ and a visual result between schizophrenia and capitalism. Petersen’s pictures are brutal, intensive, dream-like, and insane but above all, they are unbelievably aesthetic.

Program
Extensive supporting program
The festival’s opening will take place on July 1^st, 8 p.m. at the Alte Handelshof located in Grimmaische Strasse 1-7. Besides the main exhibition and an exhibition that presents the works of the 16 finalists of the F/Stops contest, there will also be an extensive supporting program:

Included are, among others, a workshop on night photography as well as the opportunity to delve among portfolios with art connoisseurs and gallerists from Leipzig. Furthermore, Art^10 – ten galleries are open for the event “Westbesuch” in Leipzig-Plagwitz, and spontaneous as well as rotative guided tours. Just like last year, the visitors have the chance to choose the best art work, which will then be raffled off at the last day of the festival.

Symposium
Curating Photography
Accompanying the festival, a symposium titled “Curating contemporary photography – about the handling of contemporary photography in art exhibitions” is scheduled to take place on July 6^th . The symposium is going to provide a detailed insight into the work methods of curators of photography, who work nationwide and internationally. Popular and new ways of presentation as well as questions of legibility will be discussed. Furthermore, the importance of space as a defining moment of art is examined.