The call has closed, congratulations to the finalists:

Marna Clarke (USA) “Growing Old”
Fábio Cunha (Portugal) “The Animal Within”
Alain Schroeder (Belgium) “Grandma Divers”
Michal Solarski & Tomasz Liboska (United Kingdom / Poland) “Cut It Short”
Rosa Mariniello (Italy) “The Suspended Youth”
Magdalena Stengel (Germany) “±100”
Clelia Rochat (Belgium) “Belles Mômes”
Martha Thomas (USA) “Do Not Forget You Are Not In Lithuania”

The winner will be announced on September 3, 2021 during the opening of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Finalists’ exhibition.

—

KAUNAS PHOTO, the longest-running annual photographic festival in the Baltic States, based in Kaunas, is a platform of premieres of emerging talents. “Photo World” (China) titled KAUNAS PHOTO as a festival on crossroads of European photography. The current objective is to become a friendly festival to its audience as well as to the participating artists.

In collaboration with LensCulture, KAUNAS PHOTO festival announces an Open Call for its 18th edition, inviting photographers to propose their works and offering exhibiting opportunities as well as participation at New KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award, consisting of a solo exhibition at the largest photography gallery in the Baltic States, Kaunas Photography Gallery and a 2500 EUR monetary prize. Open Call provides opportunities to be selected to the festival exhibition and projection program. All exhibiting artists, selected via KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Open Call will be offered artist fees.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival opening events will start on September 3, 2021 with KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Exhibition. Festival’s events and outdoor exhibitions will run until the end of October.

Topic of the year: AGE

“Being young is foolish”, one could sometimes hear in Lithuanian elderly say. Or, “new generations are lost to computer screens” and “would be uncapable to survive” in the off-line world. This clash of philosophies is not only based on real-time conditions, but on ways generations see life.

In 2021, KAUNAS PHOTO festival turns eighteen, and enters the adult age. Therefore, it will focus on threshold of coming of age, becoming adult, pros and cons, stories and senses of being small, young, teenage, parent, mid-age, retired, with or without grand-children, hobby, job, retirement savings facing the sunset of life. Works relating to general or specific aspects of choices of life, crisis, joys, traditions, stereotypes, taboos, social norms and implications of big data society on age groups is of an interest. Pandemic and the ways people of different age groups cope with isolation are among the possible current topics. A festival, strongly associated with documentary photography, but indulgent to ironic or even humorous treatment of subjects by artists, KAUNAS PHOTO is looking for artists who observe, analyze, co-create with people – both with those at the edge of crossroads of life and those who have seen it all, changes of currency, political systems, changing technologies and borders.

In numerous countries of the world, 18 is the age of leaving school, or leaving hometown for metropolis, travelling the world (as it used to be before the pandemic), choosing whom to vote for, maybe getting driver’s licence, possibly diving into the unknown and undescribable quest of experience of adult night and day life. Youth life in its daily struggle and taste, difficulties and victories will be sought after by KAUNAS PHOTO 2021, the 18 year-young festival.

Stories and concepts of what can be done to improve young people’s lives, living and working opportunities and conditions, as well as what young people do to transform today’s world are very welcome in photographic works. The age threshold of 18 is often associated with self-determination, own decisions, consent whether or not a person allows his/her image to be publicized via photography. Nonetheless, in full awareness that both photographing and exhibiting images of children and youth, can be delicate and challenging, organizers of KAUNAS PHOTO invite photographers to be broad-minded about interpretations of the youth topic.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 topic corresponds to the general topic of the festival, AGE.

Who can submit?

All Photographers/Artists, regardless of their age, nationality and place of residence are invited to submit work. KAUNAS PHOTO festival is known for its focus on documentary, but all styles, genres and approaches to photography are accepted and exhibited. Both completed works and those in progress can are welcome.

Photographers/Artists with KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award in focus, should ask themselves – “is my work ready for a space of 200 square metres?”.

Entry consists of:

• title of the work;
• 12-15 images (2000 px on the longer side, JPG 90% quality);
• short description of the work (up to 250 words);
• short written BIO (up to 250 words), followed by photographer’s contacts: email, phone number/s, mailing address.
• Non-refundable entry fee of 25 EUR, per series entered, payable at the time of submission. No more than two series per artist accepted.
  For the best of understanding, texts must be in English.

Entries accepted via LensCulture. Direct link:
https://www.lensculture.com/competitions/kaunas-photo-star-2021/events

Deadline – May 29 JUNE 10, 2021

Photographers/Artists are encouraged to enter works as early as possible, since the festival curatorial team will be reviewing and studying submissions as soon as they will be arriving.

Open Call Opportunities

Photographers/Artists submitting works to Open Call can be enrolled in Kaunas Photo 2021 in the following ways:

• works can be included into KAUNAS PHOTO festival program, its indoor and outdoor exhibitions, presented in squares in Kaunas;
• Projection events;
• KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award – Finalist’s and Winner’s exhibitions.

The Jury panel of decision-making curators on the Jury panel, who will review all entries and eventually are potential providers of opportunities through their platforms, institutions and networks.

The New KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award with 2500 EUR prize

The KAUNAS PHOTO STAR tradition started in 2010, awarding the best participant of portfolio reviews with a solo exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery and paying respect to a probable future star of photography. Since 2018, the KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Winner also receives a 2500 EUR prize, and a joint exhibition of Finalists is held and opened on the same day. Possible income tax obligations, eventually imposed by the country of citizenship of the Winner, will be his/her responsibility. For a Lithuanian citizen, this prize would be tax-exempt.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Finalists exhibitions across the venues of Kaunas old town and the Winner’s exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery will open on September 3, 2021.

Selection of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Finalists and Winner

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR selection has two stages.
In the first one, Jury panel members review and vote on all submitted entries. Ratings produced by the votes serve for shortlisting the 8 Finalists.
In the second stage, a joint Curatorial board of KAUNAS PHOTO festival and Kaunas Photography Gallery confirm or decide on finalization of the shortlist. If the standing of the first 8 positions is evident, 9th and 10th runners-up do not have the same number of votes, the 8 Finalists are confirmed by standings only. If two portfolios of one single Photographer/Artist make into the top 8, then the next voted runner-up is accepted into the list of 8 Finalists. If the No. 8 candidate has the same amount of votes as No. 9 or No. 10, the Curatorial board has right to make a decision about the 8th candidate or enlarge the group of Finalists. The published list of Finalists does not indicate any ratings.

The Curatorial board selects the KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Winner from the 8 Finalists, prioritizing the work that is innovative in the use of photographic medium, exploration of the topic, strong in artistic maturity, sufficient and suitable for the large space of Kaunas Photography Gallery.

Open Call from KAUNAS PHOTO festival is followed by the Jury work that will select the shortlist of Finalists. All the shortlisted Photographers/Artists will have their exhibitions at the festival in 2021. The number of Finalists will be recommended by the festival and decided by the Jury. The Winner, selected from the Finalists by a joint board of curators of KAUNAS PHOTO festival and Kaunas Photography Gallery, will celebrate his/her exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery and receive the monetary prize. The decision regarding the Winner cannot be appealed.

The exhibitions of both, Finalists’ and the Winner’s works will open on Friday, September 3, 2021. The KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 Winner is only revealed upon opening of the doors of Kaunas Photography Gallery.

Every KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 Finalist agrees:

• to provide the festival with a set of 20 – 40 digital files of print quality and additional materials, if needed: texts, materials for installations, etc. The materials will serve for detailed assessment of projects in the progress of selection of the Winner, as well as for the production of the exhibition by KAUNAS PHOTO festival. In 2021, due to COVID-19 driven uncertainties, transportation option is completely excluded;
• to propose possible ways of exhibiting his or her work, but accept the final decisions of the exhibition architects of KAUNAS PHOTO festival;
• that no site-specific or content information about Finalists’ exhibitions will be disclosed until the date and hours of the exhibition openings.

Every KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 Finalist is entitled to:

• participation in a joint KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award exhibition, that will be produced by and at the expenses of KAUNAS PHOTO festival;
• Due to COVID-19 risks, complicated travel arrangements, eventual obligations of self-isolation resulting after travel, KAUNAS PHOTO festival will not undertake travel arrangements and accommodation, but will pay every KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Finalist an Artist fee of 250 EUR against an invoice delivered by the Photographer/Artist or a contract. The Artist fees will be settled no later than until October 31, 2021.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Jury Members

Yan QI – deputy director of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (Beijing, China)

Fred Boucher – Photaumnales festival and Usimage Biennale Director (Clermont/Beauvais, France)

Thomas Schirmboeck – ZEPHYR- Raum für Fotografie, Leader (Mannheim, Germany)

Gintaras Česonis – Kaunas Photography Gallery, Leader (Lithuania)

Anna Dannemann – The Photographers’ Gallery, Senior Curator (London, UK)

Julia Durkin – Auckland Festival of Photography director (New Zealand)

Kristina Juraitė – KAUNAS PHOTO co-founder, professor at Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania)

Donatas Stankevičius – KAUNAS PHOTO and Kaunas Photography Gallery curator (Lithuania)

Mariusz Forecki – Pix.House gallery, Co-Founder (Poznan, Poland)

Mindaugas Kavaliauskas – KAUNAS PHOTO founder, curator (Lithuania)

Previous Winners of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award who have held their exhibitions at Kaunas Photography Gallery:

• Chiara Panariti, Gianfranco Ferraro (Italy, 2020)
• Maxime Matthys (Belgium, 2019)
• Simon Menner (Germany, 2018)
• Mayumi Suzuki (Japan, 2017)
• Julien Lombardi (France, 2016)
• Jeniffer Thoreson (USA, 2015)
• Andrejs Strokins (Latvia, 2013)
• Andrei Liankevich (Belarus, 2012)
• Luca Zanier (Switzerland, 2011)
• Eric Lusito (France, 2010)

Inclusion into KAUNAS PHOTO festival program

If selected to exhibit at KAUNAS PHOTO festival, Photographers/Artists will be contacted personally. Their names will appear on KAUNAS PHOTO web along with the announcement of the festival program.

Works will be produced at the expense of the festival to match site-specific settings.

Photographers whose works selected to KAUNAS PHOTO 2021 exhibition program will be also offered an artist fee.

KAUNAS PHOTO 2021 Calendar

April 28 – JUNE 10, 23:59 entries accepted, entrants’ local times – Open Call;
June 14 – last day for 8 Finalists to send in 20-40 high resolution files for KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Winner assessment, exhibition production (via WeTransfer to festival@kaunasphoto.info)
June 18 – Announcement of the Finalists on KaunasPhoto.com
September  3 – KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Finalists’ and Winner’s exhibition Openings;
Events, meetings (online and on-site), educational activities, projections, exhibition tours – until October 31, 2021.

Author’s rights and other legal aspects

While submitting works to the KAUNAS PHOTO 2021 open call via LensCulture, a photographer declares that he/she is the only owner of the economic author’s rights to the pictures submitted. Photographer agrees that the pictures submitted can be reproduced in materials and forms of artistic or media presentation of KAUNAS PHOTO festival outcomes, such as flyers, invitation cards, post cards, posters, catalogs, projections, slideshows, web sites, including but not limited to that of KAUNAS PHOTO festival for unlimited time in unlimited territory without any royalty payments. Entrants accept their responsibility for the right to the image of persons, models, places, objects or trade marks appearing in the pictures submitted to KAUNAS PHOTO festival.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival does not limit the photographers’ /artists’ moral or economic rights to promote, broadcast, exhibit, publish and sell their works submitted to KAUNAS PHOTO festival’s Open Call.

Prints produced by KAUNAS PHOTO festival, can be either left at the festival’s collection or destroyed after the exhibition, based on the decision of the Photographer/Artist.

In 2017, ”The Nemunas Journey” exhibition by Vitus Saloshanka (Belarus/Germany), partly created during two Residencies provided by KAUNAS PHOTO (2015 and 2017), after the first show during the festival in 2017, was presented at Prienai Cultural Centre and Prospektas Gallery of Photography in Vilnius, with artist being present to all opening events, trips & accommodation covered by the inviting parties. In 2019, this exhibition went to “InterPhoto” festival in Bialystok, Poland. The artist is reinvited, in some cases supplementary artist fees were paid. This is just one example of works living on after KAUNAS PHOTO.

About KAUNAS PHOTO festival

Founded in 2004 by Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, KAUNAS PHOTO aims to be the stage for the future stars of photography. Being a part of Photo Festival Union and Festivals Of Light Organization, KAUNAS PHOTO festival is the longest-running photographic festival in the Baltic states. The festival is a platform for dialogue around contemporary photographic creation between North and South, East and West.

KAUNAS PHOTO 2021 is funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture.
KAUNAS PHOTO STAR partners: Kaunas Photography Gallery, LensCulture.

Enter works until May, 29 JUNE 10, 2021 (23:59 your local time) via LensCulture

LensCulture is a global community of photographers and industry professionals. As one of the world’s largest online destinations for discovering contemporary photography, LensCulture also provides some of the best opportunities for global exposure, international recognition, ongoing learning and creative development. LensCulture is committed to inspiring and empowering its thriving community of over 2.5 million, across 145 countries and in 15 languages around the world.

www.KaunasPhoto.com

On September 6, 2019, during the inauguration days of the 16th KAUNAS PHOTO festival, five parts of the exhibition “KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2019 Finalists” were opened one after another in Kaunas old town. The exhibition openings were attended by the authors who presented their exhibited works and talked about their ideas and creative processes. At the end of the itinerary, the Winner of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award was disclosed – Belgian visual artist and photographer Maxime Matthys. His series  “2091: The Ministry of Privacy” is exploring the mechanism of facial recognition technologies used by the Chinese government to monitor and oppress the inhabitants of the Xinjiang region. This series reveals the intrusiveness and the danger of this invisible technology, while documenting and paying tribute to what remains of these communities’ vibrant culture, before its planned disappearance. The resulting photographs blur the borders between reality and virtuality, but also embody, in the same picture, a glimpse of the future and the ruins of the past. The Winner of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR competition received a solo exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery and a 2500 EUR monetary prize.

During the opening of the exhibition, Maxime Matthys expressed gratitude to the festival for the opportunity to present this little-discussed topic, shared his ideas behind the project “2091: The Ministry of Privacy” and related some of his experiences while developing it. While traveling and photographing in China, the author said that he was constantly tracked, arrested a total of 7 times, and his photographs were being inspected.

According to the author, for the past 2 years, China has been conducting a massive crackdown against Muslim-minority communities in its vast western Xinjiang region. Some of the most advanced surveillance technologies, such as facial recognition and DNA collection are being massively deployed in the region so as to monitor every aspect of the inhabitant’s life.

M. Matthys travelled to Kashgar, one of the last bastions of the Uyghur culture in Xinjiang, and probably the most monitored city of the region, to try to document the way the government turned technologies into tools of repression.

Prior to his departure, he developed a facial recognition software in collaboration with William Attache, a French IT engineer. The software they developed is similar to that used by the Chinese government, particularly in the Xinjiang region to track its inhabitants. They programmed the software to recognize the people in a photograph and to directly draw the biometric information about the faces of the people that appear in the photographs, exactly as it is happening inside the surveillance cameras. Depending on the technology, some are displayed using red dots — called facial landmarks — others using Delaunay diagrams, an efficient alternative for mapping faces.

M. Matthys then began to photograph the daily lives of the Uyghurs and the other minorities under threat, without having to focus on the surveillance system itself. Back in his hotel room, he uploaded the pictures into the facial recognition software, which automatically recognized and drew the respective biometric facial information of the citizens in the photographs.

Thanks to the sponsor Hikvision.lt, the exhibition “2091: The Ministry of Privacy” in Kaunas Photography Gallery features an installation similar to the surveillance system used by the Chinese government, and live footage can be seen on a big screen set up right among the photographs.

Maxime Matthys was born in 1995 in Brussels, Belgium. He studied photography at the Toulouse school of photography and design in 2015 and photojournalism in Paris in 2017. After working for the press industry, he realized he was more interested in including the viewer into a thinking process and allowing him to recreate his own story. His work focuses on the way technologies are affecting our daily life and are shifting our perception of reality. While exploring new forms of narrative in photography, he keeps documenting the important issues that are shaping our future. Winner of international awards, his work has notably been showcased at the European House of Photography (Paris), Camando Design school (Paris), at international festivals in Canada, Indonesia and France and published in Le Monde, Médiapart, Libération, Fisheye Magazine, amongst others.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR tradition started in 2010, awarding the best participant of portfolio reviews with a solo exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery and paying respect to a potential future star of photography. In 2018 KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award gained a new tradition of staging an exhibition of all Finalists, after selecting them by the votes of an international Jury panel. The works of the highest-ranked finalists are exhibited in a joint exhibition, and the winner – at Kaunas Photography Gallery. The winner also receives a cash prize.

Following the votes of an international Jury panel, 8 Finalists have been selected in KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2019 competition. Although KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award competition is open to a variety of themes, styles, genres and approaches to photography, most of the entries featured this year’s festival theme “Digital-Virtual-Real”. The prevailing documentary photography genre invites to focus on processes, consequences of digitized lifestyle, data flow, communication, cyber-crime and -security, machine learning, surveillance, automation, dangers and fragile borders.

The works of the 8 finalists can be visited until October 6 in the exhibition “KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2019 Finalists” distributed across five venues in Kaunas old town:

• Kaunas Photography Gallery (Vilniaus St. 2) – Maxime Matthys (Belgium) “2091 : The Ministry of Privacy”;
• Gallery „Meno Parkas“ (Rotušės Sq. 27) – Kai Löffelbein (Germany) “Ctrl-X, a topography of e-waste”, Agata Wieczorek (Poland) “Simulation Centers” and Samuel W. J. Fordham (UK) “C-R92/BY”;
• Kaunas City Museum Folk Music Branch (L. Zamenhofo St. 12) – John Angerson (UK) “On this Day” and Paulo Simão (Portugal) “Goodbye Pyongyang”;
• Kaunas Public Library of Vincas Kudirka – Department of Youth, Art and Music (A. Mapu St. 18) – Marko Zink (Austria) “Mauthausen – The Eradication of Memories”;
• Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations (Šv. Gertrūdos St. 58) – Christopher Sims (USA) “Theater of War: The Pretend Villages of Iraq and Afghanistan”.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival is supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture and Kaunas city municipality.

—

KAUNAS PHOTO is the longest-running annual photographic festival in Lithuania and the Baltic States. Maintaining its strong international character, KAUNAS PHOTO is a platform of priemieres of emerging talents. Since its first edition in 2004, it’s been organized by the NGO „Šviesos raštas“ and is regarded to be one of the most important continuous art events in the country. KAUNAS PHOTO is a member of „Festivals of Light“ organization. The founder and the director of the festival is Mindaugas Kavaliauskas.

Since 2010 KAUNAS PHOTO festival KAUNAS PHOTO STAR, an open competition aimed at distinguishing tomorrow’s photography stars. KAUNAS PHOTO Open Call was a huge success bringing almost 300 proposals of photographers from 43 countries of the world. Based on votes of 10 international experts, 12 Finalists were identified. The committee of KAUNAS PHOTO festival and Kaunas Photography Gallery selected the Winner.

This year KAUNAS PHOTO STAR gained a new format staging an exhibition of all twelve Finalists. The exhibition is on display at three Kaunas old town venues: Kaunas City Museum, Folk Music Branch Department, “Meno Parkas” gallery and Kaunas Photography Gallery. The Winner of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR competition received a solo exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery and a 2500 Eur monetary prize.

On 1st of September, at 6 pm, together with life music played by quintet of The Lithuanian Air Force, the doors of Kaunas Photography gallery was opened. The KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2018 Winner became Simon Menner (Germany) for a series “Camouflage”. The director of Mobilisation and Civil Resistance Department under MND Virginijus Vitalijus Vilkelis cogradulated the author and gave him a present – medal of the Ministry. Festival director Mindaugas Kavaliauskas emphasizes that “Camouflage” is special because it invites visitors to a gripping and interactive experience. It is not easy to find snipers hiding in the images on large format prints. The mission is almost impossible.

Invisible due to their professionalism, hidden snipers are located in every of these images. They are aiming at the camera and therefore at the viewer. With a friendly support of the German, Lithuanian and Latvian Armies, Simon Menner was granted access to stage pictures of their snipers. The exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery is on display till 7th of October.

Simon Menner earned a Diploma and subsequently an MFA from the Universität der Künste Berlin, in both cases as a student of Stan Douglas. He has spent time as a student at the School of the Art Institute Chicago. Menner has exhibited his work in photography internationally and amongst other venues, participated in solo and group shows in the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, Anchorage Museum, CO Berlin, Museum for Photography Berlin, NRW Forum Düsseldorf, Benaki Museum Athens, Bauhaus Museum Weimar, Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej Krakow and the Biennale de Lubumbashi. His work was featured widely by the Guardian, Der Spiegel, BBC, New York Times, The Independent, CNN, Frieze, Vice, Wired and many others. Menner has received a number of stipends and awards, such as a working grant by the Berlin Senate in 2015, a working grant by the German Stiftung Kunstfonds in 2014 and the Presidential Award of the Universität der Künste Berlin for the best Diploma in 2007. He is an appointed member of the German Photographic Association.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2018 Finalists:
Kirill Golovchenko (Ukraine/Germany) “Bitter Honeydew”, Mindaugas Ažušilis (Lithuania) “Accident”, Gloria Oyarzabal (Spain) “WOMAN GO NO’GREE”, Davide Monteleone (Italy) “A New Silk Road”, Federico Estol (Uruguay) “Shine Heroes”, Hester den Boer (Netherlands) “The Gulag Heritage”, Lynné Bowman Cravens (USA) “Works with different titles”, Alena Grom (Ukraine) “Medium of Instruction”, Gregoire Cachemaille (Switzerland/Germany) “Subsidences”, Hannes Jung (Germany) “How Is Life?”, Laurent Muschel (France) “Haircut – From Ethiopia to Cuba”, Simon Menner (Germany) “Camouflage”.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival invites to visit “Camouflage” by Simon Menner and other exhibitions!

5pm Artist talk. Kaunas Photography Gallery (Vilniaus str. 2) Mayumi Suzuki (Japan).

On 1st of September, at 6 pm., at Kaunas Photography Gallery (Vilniaus st. 2), will be the opening of the exhibition “The Restoration Will” by Mayumi Suzuki (Japan).

On 19 of August, at 6:oo p.m., at Kaunas Photography gallery, KAUNAS PHOTO festival opened an exhibition “Unfinished” created by French artist Julien Lombardi, who became KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2o16.

Exhibition will be on display until 18  of September.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Lithuanian.

Tryliktajame KAUNAS PHOTO žibės gatvės vertė

Tarptautinis fotomeno festivalis „Kaunas Photo“ pradeda savo tryliktąjį sezoną, rugpjūčio 19 d., penktadienį kviesdamas į dviejų parodų atidarymus. 16:00 val., Nacionalinio M. K. Čiurlionio dailės muziejaus M. Žilinsko dailės galerijoje atidaroma pagrindinė festivalio paroda – „Gatvės vertė“. Vėliau, 18:00 val., Kauno fotografijos galerijoje vyks „Kaunas Photo Star“ konkurso laureato Julien Lombardi (Prancūzija) parodos „Neužbaigta“ atidarymas. Abi įžanginės parodos yra festivalio dalyvavimo didelio masto Europos bendradarbiavimo projekte „Flâneur – naujieji miesto naratyvai“ rezultatas. Parodas, atsidarančias fotografijos gimtadieniu laikomą rugpjūčio 19 d., lydės festivalio programos paskelbimas. Šios dvi parodos veiks iki rugsėjo 18 d.

Paroda „Gatvės vertė“, aukštinanti bodleriškąjį personažą „Flâneur“ – gatvės dykinėtoją, įžengusį į XXI amžių – tyrinėja viešosios erdvės ir gatvės fotografiją, šiandienines miesto, kaip gyvenamosios, vartojamosios ir patirčių erdvės apraiškas. Kaip rašo vienas parodos kuratorių Leonidas Donskis, flâneur dykinėtojas pasirodo kaip slaptas miesto mylėtojas; tiksliau jos/jo išgelbėtojas. Miesto pasakojimų karalystėje, senoje ir naujoje, flâneur turi tendenciją tapti flâneuse – modernia moterimi įsikūnijusia į miesto mylėtoją. Savo bučiniu ji pažadina miegantį miestą. Dykinėtojai yra linksmintojai, vujaristai, bučiuotojai, mylėtojai…tačiau yra nutolę nuo gundymo ir priekabiavimo.

Parodoje pristatomi septyniolika autorių ir jų darbai: Audrius Kriaučiūnas (Nyderlandai), Balder Olrik (Danija), Christopher Mavric (Austrija), Iga Gozdowska (JK / Lenkija), Isabelle Riviere (Prancūzija), Jan Dirk van der Burg & Gijs van der Berg (Nyderlandai), Marta Rybicka (Lenkija), Marton Kallai (Vengrija), Massimo Branca (Italija), Mateusz Jaźwiecki (Lenkija), Mathieu Nonnenmacher (Prancūzija), Norman Behrendt (Vokietija), Torsten Schumann (Vokietija), Virgilio Ferreira (Portugalija), Werner Mansholt (Vokietija), Mindaugas Kavaliauskas ir Donatas Stankevičiaus (Lietuva). Paroda nustebins ne tik kontraversiškais autorių darbais, bet ir netikėtais architektūriniais sprendimais. Parodos kuratoriai Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Donatas Stankevičius, Leonidas Donskis.

Daugiau apie parodą čia >>

Kauno fotografijos galerijoje – šių metų KAUNAS PHOTO STAR laureato Julien Lombardi paroda „Neužbaigta“ (2012-2015). Šį darbą aukščiausiai įvertino keliolika tarptautinės reikšmės fotografijos ekspertų festivalio KAUNAS PHOTO nuotolinių peržiūrų platformoje folioPORT.eu. Paroda atskleis daugeliui nepažįstamą Armėniją – šalį, patekusią į sustojusio laiko pinkles. Pasak festivalio vadovo Mindaugo Kavaliausko, šiame ilgalaikiame projekte autoriui padėjo ne vien jo armėniškos šaknys, bet ir jo antropologo išsilavinimas, leidęs į šalį, kultūrą, žmonių viltis ir neišspręstus konfliktus pažvelgti atidžiai ir skvarbiai.

Daugiau apie parodą čia >>

Būdamas vienas svarbiausių meno festivalių Lietuvoje ir Kaune, „Kaunas Photo“ yra ir ilgiausiai be pertraukų rengiamas kasmetinis tarptautinis fotomeno festivalis Lietuvoje ir Baltijos šalyse.
Nuo 2004 m. festivalį organizuoja viešoji įstaiga „Šviesos raštas“.

Festivalio didieji partneriai – „Procur’Arte“ (Portugalija), Nacionalinis M.K.Čiurlionio Muziejus, Kauno fotografijos galerija. Festivalis yra pasaulinės „Festival of Light“ organizacijos narys.
Festivalio didieji rėmėjai – Lietuvos kultūros taryba, Lietuvos Respublikos kultūros ministerija, Kauno miesto savivaldybė, ES “Kūrybiška Europa”. Parodas parėmė EPSON.

Papildoma informacija:

Eglė Ročkaitė – „Kaunas Photo“ koordinatorė, tel. 8~600 31722, el. p.: festival@kaunasphoto.info

www.KaunasPhoto.com