COPENHAGEN.- Copenhagen Photo Festival is ready with a wide-ranging and inspiring anniversary programme, which runs from 6 to 16 June. The anniversary is celebrated with a number of new family-friendly activities and a new scene on Refshaleøen focusing on all the festival’s partners, Photo Scene 2024, where the audience can experience inspiring conversations with highly current artists, curators and photo actors.
Copenhagen Photo Festival presents a wide-ranging anniversary program with more than 50 exhibitions from the festival's center on Refshaleøen to Helsingør in the north, Køge in the south and from Odense in the west to Landskrona in the east. All with big current names within both Nordic and international photography.
The anniversary celebration is kicked off with a Grand Opening event on Refshaleøen on June 6 with free access to all the exhibitions and DJs, opening speeches and a party in the festival's large tipi tent.
"This year's program shows that photography is very strong on the contemporary art scene. In addition, we are happy to be able to introduce several new initiatives in our anniversary year, including Photo Scene 2024, which supports and strengthens that development," says festival director Maja Dyrehauge Gregersen.
New photo scene that brings together and pays tribute to the festival's co-creators
On the occasion of the anniversary, the festival has stepped up its family-friendly offerings with fun workshop activities, treasure hunts for children, guided tours and a creative work space open all days of the festival.
A new shared photo scene, Photo Scene 2024, will also be presented over two days on June 8 and 9 in the center of the festival. Here, many of the festival's partners offer inspiring talks, panel discussions and book launches. The final stage program consists of a number of the biggest names in photographic art in Denmark. Among others, you can meet award-winning and renowned photographers such as Fryd Frydendahl, Søren Solkær, Nicolai Howalt, Kent Klich for conversations in the tent about their art, books and practice.
This year's photo book market takes place over the same two days, where the public can discover inspiring photo books from some of the most passionate and ambitious photo book publishers in the Nordics, including Disko Bay, Void, Book Lab, Marrow Press, Konnotation Press, Space Poetry and many others.
Exhibitions throughout the country with strong partners
Copenhagen Photo Festival 2024 branches out this year to art institutions from the center of Copenhagen and across the country, where the program offers a wide range of photo exhibitions.
At Art Museum Brandts in Odense, you can experience the group exhibition Love, Lust and Freedom, which is the first major Danish-produced exhibition where photography is the focal point in narratives about being queer. Roni Horn, one of the most influential and acclaimed artists of the time, presents some of his main works at Louisiana in Humlebæk.
At the KØS Museum for art in the public space in Køge, you can experience one of Finland's most recognized international artists, Elina Brotherus, with the exhibition IN THE ARCHITECT'S HOUSE. And to the north, at the M/S Maritime Museum in Elsinore, you can experience the National Geographic Society's group exhibition Pristine Seas: Bringing the Ocean Back, which has photographed some of the most remote and wildest underwater areas for a decade.
Danish and international artists throughout Copenhagen
In Copenhagen, you can also look forward to recognized Danish photo artists as well as international star names.
At the Royal Library in Slotsholmen, photography enthusiasts can experience the world-renowned photographer Deborah Willis in a talk about the body, art and beauty – a concept that Willis works with. As an extension of this, it is also possible to explore the library and experience the Danish press photos from the 'Press Photo of the Year' competition.
If you go to Nyhavn, you can experience the Danish artist Simon Dybbroe Møller at Kunsthal Charlottenborg from 8 June, who with the work Thick & Thin has brought the ancient Grauballe man back to life and, not least, Thao Nguyen Phan's first and highly praised solo exhibition in Scandinavia Reincarnation of Shadows.
In addition, you can meet established Danish photo artists such as Peter Funch (Fotografisk Center), Søren Solkær (Big Bio), Christine Clemmensen (Arden Asbæk Gallery), Eva Tind (Banja Rathnov art store and gallery), Nicolai Howalt (Ex Nihilo), Manuel Alberto Claro (Det Vide Hus) and a group exhibition with, among others, Susanne Wellm and Joakim Eskildsen (Galleri Kant) at the city's galleries and art galleries.
Last but not least, you can also get an insight into budding talents and established photographers from Ukraine and Belarus in a series of eye-opening exhibitions at Ukraine House with Myph, at Pop Up Copenhagen with VEHA archive and at Copenhagen City Hall with Belarusian photographer Sergei Gapon.
