5th European Month of Photography Berlin
October 19–November 25, 2012
Festival Centre:
Pariser Platz 4a
10117 Berlin (Mitte)
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11–7pm
Official opening: October 18, 2012, 7:30pm
Akademie der Künste
Pariser Platz 4
10117 Berlin (Mitte)
www.mdf-berlin.de
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From October 19 to November 25, 2012, the European Month of Photography Berlin for the fifth time makes the German capital the focus of local and international attention as a photo metropolis. The festival once again presents a broad spectrum of exhibitions and events that address this year’s theme, “The View of the Other”, from various perspectives. In doing so, it highlights a variety of thematic and medial aspects: topics such as the construction of identity, exoticisation, colonialism, voyeurism, reflections on the familiar and the alien and much more. The exhibitions and their protagonists, the photographers and artists, also enter into a dialogue that provides insights into the development and constitution of our society, or societies.
The European Month of Photography Berlin is the largest photo festival in Germany. It has taken place in Berlin every two years since 2004, presenting numerous exhibitions and events on historical and contemporary photography. The organiser is Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH in cooperation with museums, cultural institutions and galleries in Berlin and Potsdam. From initially 83 institutions with 93 exhibitions and 135,000 visitors, partner participation has risen to over 120 institutions, which in 2010 offered more than 140 exhibitions, as well as 250 events drawing more than 500,000 national and international visitors.
In 2012, the exhibition project “distURBANces – Can Fiction Beat Reality?” will take place alongside the partners’ exhibitions. This project was jointly developed by a European network in Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Paris and Vienna (EMOP). It will have its own thematic focus in each host city. Parallel to the partners’ exhibitions, a festival centre will serve as a meeting place and event venue during the entire run of the festival. Additionally the exhibition “Cairo. Open City – New Testimonies from an Ongoing Revolution” will be shown here in cooperation with Museum für Photographie Braunschweig. A program of lectures, portfolio sightings, performative mediation formats and an awards ceremony will give a new impetus.
A 256-page catalogue has been published in connection with the festival. It can be purchased in the Festival Centre and in all participating institutions.
Kulturprojekte Berlin (ed.): 5th European Month of Photography Berlin, with texts by Florian Ebner, Christopher Pinney, Katia Reich, Esther Ruelfs, Ines Schaber, Anke Schleper, Bernd Stiegler, Constanze Wicke; German/English, 256 pages, Kerber Verlag: Bielefeld/Berlin, 2012.
