Summer of Photography

Every two years the Centre for Fine Arts organises the Summer of Photography, an international biennale that focuses on photography and related media. Not only does the festival provide the opportunity to discovery modern-day photography, it also looks forward to the future of the image in our culture. Various Belgian and European exhibitions and photography and media museums have been working together to create a themed programme that explores the cultural exchange between the European member states and places it in a global context. The result is a varied programme of exhibitions and related events, with talks, a symposium, and a portfolio day, with curators, photographers, and related specialists in different fields offering us an insight into their work and their vision.

In a variety of locations in Belgium, Summer of Photography thus creates a lively forum and platform for specialists, amateurs, and anyone with an interest in photography. Through the combined forces of its partners, this biennale promotes photography as a medium, as well as the international reputation of the Belgian photography world.

There is a common theme running through the Summer of Photography. In 2012, this biennale is exploring an age-old genre, the landscape. Dozens of photographers in whose work the landscape plays an important role will be participating in the main exhibition Sense of Place at the Centre for Fine Arts and the partners’ programmes.

They will be reflecting on the current state of the natural landscape and its relationship with the city and people, but the landscape’s place in photography will also be given an important role in itself. And when people talk about the European landscape, geo-political connotations also come to mind.

SENSE OF PLACE

The beating heart of the Summer of Photography is the exhibition Sense of Place: European Landscape Photography, at the Centre for Fine Arts, with approximately 160 works from more than 40 modern-day European photographers. Photographers from the 27 member states will be presenting their vision of their own country’s landscape here in Brussels. The exhibition is divided into three main European regions (North, Central, and Mediterranean) and it explores the idea of the national and regional landscape in the context of a united Europe. The exhibition looks at what characterises the European landscape on the one hand, and at what the differences are between the nation states on the other hand, as well as at the attitudes of people towards the land.

Sense of Place brings together the work of talented young photographers and the work of internationally renowned photographers such as AndreasGursky (Germany), Massimo Vitali (Italy), Olafur Eliasson (Denmark),Joan Fontcuberta (Spain), Pedro Cabrita Reis (Portugal), and Carl DeKeyzer (Belgium).

In the context of the exhibition, BOZAR is also organising a largesymposium about European landscape photography on 14 June, with the participation of Liz Wells (curator) and several of the photographers featured in Sense of Place: Massimo Vitali, Pedro Cabrita Reis, CelineGlanet (France), and Vessalina Nikolaeva (Bulgaria).

Summer of Photography
“Sense of Place” - pictures the European landscape (central exhibition)
Kuratorin: Liz Wells

Künstler: Augusto Alves da Silva, Per Bak Jensen, Nigel Baldacchino, Bruno Baltzer, Michiels Bart, Elina Brotherus, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Marianna Christofides, Celine Clanet, Gerardo Custance, Carl de Keyzer, Gerco de Ruijter, Olafur Eliasson, Joan Fontcuberta, Gina Glover, Alexander Gronsky, Andreas Gursky, Ilkka Halso, Anthony Haughey, Yenny Huber, Gerry Johansson, Flo Kasearu, Peter Kostrun, Maros Krivy, Gabor Arion Kudasz, Irene Kung, Chrystel Lebas, Nikos Markou, Jackie Nickerson,Vesselina Nikolaeva, Nicos Philippou, Tudor Prisacariu, Arturas Raila, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Szymon Roginski, Jem Southam, Theodoros Tempos, Massimo Vitali, Thomas Weinberger