Fotofestiwal opening day!
Join us for the opening of the 21 st Fotofestiwal and a special neofolk concert, this Thursday at 19:00.
Meet us in less than a week at Art_Inkubator, our post-industrial festival centre. We will kick off the opening of the 21 st Fotofestiwal by announcing the results of the Photographic Publication of the Year 2022. This year’s contest was held in a new formula, expanded to include the PDF Book Mockup category. Then, together with the partners, artists and curators of the 2022 edition, we are going to open four exhibitions of the Main Program: COMMUNITY: (“Coexist: Liberty_Equality_Biodiversity!”, “Solidarity, protest, care” and “I can be changed by what happens to me…” by Rahima Gambo & Daene Howard, and the Film School exhibition “Karasses & Granfallons”), and six exhibitions from the Open Program (artists: Santanu Dey, Mathias DeLattre, Mahe Elipe, Cemre Yesil Gonenli, Mateusz Kowalik, Balázs Turós). At the festival centre, you will also be invited to see a post- competition exhibition of books submitted for the Photographic Publication of the Year, Kassel Dummy Award and exhibition of photobooks from Latvia.
At 21:00, you can enjoy a concert inspired by last year’s festival opening, during which artists invited from the Month of Photography in Minsk impressed us with an improvised performance of Belarusian songs, making it one of the most memorable moments in the 20- year history of our event. This is the second time that exhibitions from the Month of Photography in Minsk will be shown in Łódź, as the artists cannot show their works to the public in their homeland due to the repressions of the political regime. What is more, this year we will be joined by a photography festival from Ukraine: Odesa Photo Days. Curator Kateryna Radchenko has prepared two exhibitions that, in view of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, couldn’t take place in Odessa this May. As a sign of solidarity with partner festivals and Ukraine, the opening of this year’s Fotofestiwal will feature a concert by the Ukrainian band YAGODY.
The music by YAGODY is a rite of initiation. “It is the wind blowing in the middle of the steppe. The songs of wild tribes, the voices of our ancestors. It is a living energy, singing of sirens, musical trance. It is a dance of voices. This is what your nature smells like. This is what your blood sounds like. Our music is letters from the past that you have never received.” YAGODY was formed spontaneously in June 2016. The band uses a wide range of instruments from its region and Eastern Europe, but also from countries in other continents. The musicians combine traditional songs with their own lyrics. In their music, you can also hear Ukrainian lamentations and Balkan motifs.
Later in the evening, the music will be provided by DJ Finger Trips, once a promoter of funk and hip-hop, who today introduces to the Łódź club scene the sounds of disco and house. The following days of the festival will bring dozens of events, including the unique musical Festival of Many Cultures at Piotrkowska Street, curator- and artist-guided tours, exhibition openings, Neighbours’ Photo Studio, a discussion on possible models of rural life, and Sunday at Księży Młyn with the opening of a new institution in Łódź.
The exhibitions and events of Fotofestiwal 2022 are already in our PROGRAM section and in the PLAN VISIT section!
See you soon!
