Since 2014, the Aarhus School of Architecture and Galleri Image have collaborated on organising Photobook Week Aarhus or PWA. PWA focuses on the rapidly growing international interest in photobooks in recent years. Photobook Week Aarhus represents a continuous study of the evolution and role of the medium.
PWA presents the photobook to the general public and to individuals who work professionally with photobooks and photography, be it from an artistic, communication-related or academic standpoint. User involvement, openness and dialogue are key words when it comes to the form and content of the festival. For this reason, PWA has placed great emphasis on inviting a large number of exhibitors and speakers who can present the photobook in a cross-disciplinary perspective. This has made it possible to exhibit significant but rare photobooks that have been discussed by researchers, photographers, leading curators, architects, representatives of The Danish School of Media and Journalism, and many other qualified contributors from around the world.
“After looking at Flatness (2019), and Seriality (2020), we will now focus on Movement and Transition. Taking these keywords literally as well as metaphorically, the exhibition program and talks will embrace contemporary themes such as migration, globalization and post-colonial thinking, artistic movements such as Dada and Fluxus, and an analysis of photographers’libraries, to highlight their role as sources of inspiration. Genres such as historic travel guides and company books will be just as important as art publications, and we will highlight the book production in the Caribbean, Greenland, and the Caucasus region. Overlaps with video and film are inherent to the photobook medium, and will be explored in depth in the framework of an exhibition and a series of commissioned essays. Finally, the Open Book Market will feature international publishers, and the results of an open call for self-publishers. We envision Photobook Week Aarhus 2021 to be an open and inclusive event, that underlines the importance of the Library as a space of contemplation, concentration and creativity. As a place where the printed page is in movement and transition, where the book can shift and flicker between a source of knowledge on the one hand, and a material support for artistic practice on the other.”
