European Month of Photography Luxembourg - EMoPLux Full focus on photography in the Grand Duchy
The exhibitions in the framework of the European Month of Photography Luxembourg have been open since May. The theme for the 2023 edition is "Rethinking identity" and, with 24 projects and presentations, there's plenty to see! To give you an initial overview, we highlight four of the main events and present here the general outline of the project.
A photographer without a camera
The Belgian artist Katrien de Blauwer has an exhibition at Villa Vauban. As a "photographer without a camera", she cuts, sticks, assembles, colours and manipulates photographs that she has taken from the old magazines in her collection. Her works, similar to photo montage and cinematography montage, have an intense narrative charge. Somewhere between a memory and a personal, intimate and anonymous personal story, the images become a potential scenario for each and every one of us. The display consists of 29 works from the series "When I Was a Boy" (2016-2018).
The exhibition will run until 2 July.
Au sein de la famille
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Cihan Çakmak, em fraktal_02 rausgehen (going out), 2021
Film still
© Cihan Çakma
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Ulla Deventer, Snowwhite, 2021
Photographie
© Ulla Deventer
Within the family
The six artists inhabiting Cercle Cité are exhibiting works that evoke ideas centred around family and community in the search for identity: intimacy, belonging, our personal and public image, traditional concepts of the family and new communal movements create their own dialogue, giving rise to new perspectives. The artists tackle themes such as protection within the family, daily violence, sibling rivalry, the image of femininity, origins and migration, through photography, but also video, installations and multimedia.
"Rethinking Identity, Family, Community" can be seen up to 2 July at Ratskeller.
Revelation(s) / Portfolio – Platform
One very special event is the meeting between emerging artists in the Grand Duchy and contemporary photography experts. At this "revelation" of portfolios, the young photographers will be able to make themselves known to both international experts and the general public with a ten-minute presentation followed by individual opinions from the experts, who will comment on the works in private with the young photographers. The platform serves as a potential trigger for future plans for exhibitions, publications and recommendations made to other curators and exhibition venues. Anyone who is interested can put themselves forward by submitting a portfolio. Révélation(s) 2023 has taken place on 10 May at Neumünster Abbey.
Bodies of Identities
The Casino Luxembourg – Contemporary Art Forum is offering two exhibitions as part of the European Month of Photography.
Bodies of Identities is a collective exhibition that reflects on the complexity of identities in our society. Works of around twenty artists discuss the various, sometimes conflicting, forms of identity, at the crossroads of psychology, philosophy, biology, geography, culture and socio-politics. They highlight subjective perceptions and social tensions in a contemporary world in crisis.
The French artist Raphael Lecqoquierre presents a collection of paintings, sculptures and installations created using analogue and popular photographs: images of the family, landscapes and other subjects of memory accumulated over the course of time. Dissolved by oxidation, the coloured substance is extracted from the images, and the pigments that have been removed in this way are incorporated into Venetian stucco and used as the base material for the patterns he creates.
You can visit Bodies of Identities and the Tills exhibition up to 10 September 2023.
Corps d'identités
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Lucia Pizzani, Acorazada, 2020
Installation
© Lucia Pizzani
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Effi & Amir, The Throat, 2021
Film still
© Effi & Amir
Rethinking Landscape
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Krystyna Dul, Mamas Papas, 2022
Photographie
© Krystyna Dul
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Lunga Ntila
Photography, collage
© Lunga Ntila
Je est un autre (I is an other)
At Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart, six artists invite you to explore the theme of identity based on the famous quote by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud "Je est un autre". The quote was taken from a letter written to his colleague Paul Demeny in 1871, and which refers to the poet as a multiple being, a diverse personality that swings between identity and otherness. It also examines the subject in relation to others. The exhibition Rethinking Identity. Je est un autre (I is an other) positions this philosophical and psychological debate from the 1960s and 1970s within our era.
You can visit the exhibition until 22 October 2023.
"And the winner is…"
Ulla Deventer, Cihan Çakma, Lívia Melzi, Jojo Gronostay and Karolina Wojtas were the five nominees for the Arendt Award 2023. You can discover these artists and their works until 22 September on the premises of Arendt & Medernach – Arendt House – on the Kirchberg plateau. Every two years since 2012, this law firm, which has offices worldwide, rewards a virtual artist from among the exhibitions staged as part of the European Month of Photography. Support for photography is one of the firm's general policies, as contemporary art is a passion. Alongside exhibitions at its head office in Luxembourg, the firm has, over the years, built up an art collection with emphasis on the main currents in contemporary photography.
Jojo Gronostay is the winner of the 2023 edition.
A traditional photography biennial
The European Month of Photography has been held every two years in Luxembourg since 2007, and it has become a fixed date on the calendars of amateurs and professionals alike. The festival is organised by Café-Crème a.s.b.l. This association was founded in 1984 by Paul di Felice and Pierre Stiwer, both independent curators and publishers, and the architect Paul Bretz. It is active in the field of contemporary art, particularly with regard to photography and image-related forms of expression.
The concept of the European Month of Photography was launched for the first time in 2004, by the "Maison Européenne de la Photographie" in Paris. Since then, their mission has not changed: to develop partnerships with other European capital cities, to share its expertise and skill in managing photography festivals, to create joint projects, and to promote exchanges between photographers in its member countries.
The partner cities and members of EMoP a.s.b.l. also form the network of the "European Month of Photography". This currently comprises the company Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH, the FOTO WIEN photo festival in Vienna and Imago in Lisbon, the FetArt collective and its Circulations festival in Paris, the PhotoBrussels festival and Café-Crème a.s.b.l. in Luxembourg.
L'EMoPLux collaborates with nearly all the Grand Duchy's art institutions and with various private spaces and galleries. There are also other public places such as the National Library, the National Archives and LUCA (Luxembourg Center for Architecture) presenting exhibitions. And don't forget to venture outside the capital to discover works by other photographers in Dudelange, Clervaux, Ettelbruck and even in our neighbouring town of Trier (Germany)!
A catalogue is produced for each edition.
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