Untold stories
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In the background noise of the multitude of images, it seems that it is hardly possible to say something important and new about photography.
Especially in Lithuania and especially in the geographic and calendar proximity of the Eurobasket championship. Should photography run after the Lithuanian national sport melt in the ecstasy of its celebration?
Well, it more likely that KAUNAS PHOTO festival will be a refuge for those seeking to explore the refreshing particularities of photography. Its emotional, economical, social, aesthetic insights, collective and personal stories, exhibited, projected and talked about in KAUNAS PHOTO 2011, are most often left behind the scenes of the agenda of mass media and the fakedness of the social media.
KAUNAS PHOTO festival this year is committed to pay tribute to the socially-responsible documentary photography, the development is still on-going. During the past decades it has adopted new chapters, new themes and styles and has produced new stars. Since the turn of the centuries, this type of photography in regard to other media, has become similar to the ugly duck, which does not seek beauty, but is unavoidably visible, exhibited, published, discussed, purchased, collected due to its insights, content and originality. The victory of “Interesting” versus beautiful” makes this photography distinctive from the related media practices in the garage of creative industries.
The theme of exhibitions, lectures, projections of the eight KAUNAS PHOTO festival, “Untold Stories” offers an oasis of socially-aware art next to the heating-up celebration of basketball in Lithuania.
Program
The theme of exhibitions, lectures, projections of the eight KAUNAS PHOTO festival, “Untold Stories” offers an oasis of socially-aware art next to the heating-up celebration of basketball in Lithuania. The festival program consists of 15 exhibitions, including “Traces of the Soviet Empire” by Eric Lusito (France), the winner of last year’s KAUNAS PHOTO STAR portfolio competition who has travelled from East Germany to Mongolia in quest of signs of the declining soviet power, “Shutting Up Shops” by John Londei (UK) about the end of the small-business era, “Tropical Gift” by Christian Lutz (Switzerland) about the business of the black gold in Africa, “Rewind” by Nina Korhonen (Sweden) about the quest for family roots worldwide, “Floating Dreams” by Marten Kross (Estonia) about proximity of the sea, “Alpine story” by Lois Hechenblaikner (Austria) describing the shift from agriculture to pop-tourism in Austria, “Flowers Powers” by Borut Peterlin (Slovenia) ironically speaking of the role of flora in the global policy-making, a joint exhibition by young Lithuanian photographers – Mindaugas Ažušilis, Eugenijus Barzdžius and Donatas Stankevičius – “Take it of leave it”, contemplating the of the Lithuanian youth, facing the dilemma of living the crisis or choosing the emigration.
Far from unimportant is the fact that numerous stories showed in exhibitions have been published as monographic books by reputed art Publishers in Europe.
Among the five Nights of Photography (projections), two of them have adopted “Duets and Duels”, the theme of KAUNAS PHOTO 2010. For maximum intensity of projection events, forces of Finnish and Swedish photography and those of Austrian and Swiss photography will be joined up with 12 photographers’ portfolios from each side. The events were curated and will be presented live by (respectively) Elina Heikka (Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki), Anna Tellgren (Moderna Museet, Stockholm), Thomas Licek (Eyes On – Vienna Month of Photography), Regina Anzenberger (Anzenberger Agency, Vienna) and Irene Attinger (European House of Photography, Paris). Other Nights of Photography will spotlight “Baltic Street Photography”, programs of other European festivals and the portfolios of the finalists of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2011.
The portfolio reviews competition KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2011 will host over fifty photographers and twenty portfolio reviewers. Organized for the second time, this event makes Kaunas a meeting spot for photography people from Russia in the East and Spain in the West, Finland in the North and Italy in the South, re-uniting photographers from more than twenty European countries and experts – directors, curators of museums, galleries, festivals, publishers from 12 European countries.
August 27, 2011 will be marked by KAUNAS PHOTO StarT, an event dedicated to beginners and students of Photography giving them opportunities to get advice from professionals of the field.
KAUNAS PHOTO Alytus
On September 23 and 24, 2011 KAUNAS PHOTO festival moved a part of its program – exhibitions, conferences, projections to the town of Alytus in Southern Lithuania.
Web site of KAUNAS PHOTO 2011 festival here >>
KAUNAS PHOTO festival 2011 team:
Festival director & curator Mindaugas Kavaliauskas
Coordinator Ieva Kubiliūtė
Exhibition architecture Donatas Stankevičius
Photo Night production Ieva Kubiliūtė