Tenth edition

Featuring around 300 events at 110 locations and 350 artists from 25 countries.

On June 1, Austria’s largest photography festival will inaugurate its anniversary edition with a focus on truth and lies in photography.

The festival, which is affiliated with the European Month of Photography, is celebrating its tenth anniversary with around three hundred events at 110 venues and 350 artists from twenty-five countries. Foto Arsenal Wien will host Foto Wien for the first time, with its festival base at the MuseumsQuartier and events running from June 1 to 30.

From A (as in Albertina) to Z (as in ZOOM Children’s Museum): pictures for everyone for an entire month 
From the 130 submissions that responded to the open call, the jury of Foto Wien selected ninety program partners as the festival’s core. The institutions, including museums, exhibition spaces, galleries, cultural institutions, academies, libraries, archives, studios, project initiatives, and agencies, create bridges of photography in Vienna. Around forty percent of the participants explore the subject “Photography Lies,” which is the main theme of this year’s Foto Wien. The jury commented on their choices for the program of the tenth edition of Foto Wien: “The numerous perspectives and voices of the various artists, curators, gallerists, and scholars once again show the diversity of the medium of photography as a means of social reflection and communication in our world. It encourages cultural understanding and indicates social mechanisms of action.” Foto Wien 2023 will be inaugurated on June 1 at 8pm by Vienna’s city councilor of culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler at the MuseumsQuartier. This will be followed by a night of dancing, inside and outside, with DJs Peter Kruder and Cassy. The event is free of charge.

The Opening Days, which will run from June 2 to 4, will examine the topic “Photography Lies” in a lively program of panels, lectures, and artist conversations. Parallel to this, thirty publishers will present their current photo books in the Book Days section; in addition, the Vienna Vintage Photo Fair will take place for the first time.

A book on the festival will be published by Steidl with contributions by Veronica Kaup-Hasler and Alexander Van der Bellen, by the magazines Camera Austria, EIKON, and FOTOGESCHICHTE, and picture spreads by the program partners.

Basic information
June 1—30, 2023, at 110 venues around Vienna
Festival base at MQ Freiraum, Salon

Exhibition at the festival base
Crossing Lines—Politics of Images, Paris Photo—Aperture PhotoBook Awards
and How to Make a Book with Steidl
June 2—August 20, 2023, daily except Monday, 11am—7pm, held at MQ Freiraum and Salon at the MuseumsQuartier. 
Free on June 2—4; starting June 5, daily tickets for EUR 10 (regular), EUR 5 (reduced). 

Opening: June 1, 2023, 8pm
Press conference: June 1, 2023, 11am
Opening Days: June 2—4, 2023, with the discourse program Photography Lies, BOOK DAYS, VIENNA VINTAGE PHOTO FAIR, and other events (see program pages)

Festival publication: Steidl Verlag, Hardcover, 336 pages (end of May 2023)