an essay on the concave city corner
In 2018 an international jury of recognized photobook specialists chose an essay on the concave city corner by Belgian artist-photographer Stijn Van der Linden as the winner of Photobook Week Aarhus Dummy Award 2018 among 150 unpublished photobook dummies from all over the world that applied for the award.
At PWA 2019, we presented the winning photobook at an exhibition at Dokk1.
Stijn van der Linden’s photobook is an exploration of how spaces become spaces and how photography can influence this process. It is an artistic experiment that examines concave city corners and tries to systemize corners using certain codes and diagrams related to their physical appearances. Do corners create their own places by connecting certain colours, materials and objects… or is it all a matter of people’s perception? an essay on the concave city corner is a poetic and faux-scientific look on hidden and vague locations in the city.
The exhibition shows in part how the photographs and their analysis came together into a photobook dummy. It shows the different stages of its production, from the very first little try-outs, over the construction and editing aids to the final dummy that won last year.
The winning photobook is published by Photobook Week Aarhus in collaboration with Reflektor Platform and with support from design company Kvadrat. It will be distributed by Idea Books, Amsterdam, in a media partnership with European Photography.
As a part of the exhibition, we arranged a walking tour from Aarhus School of Architecture to Dokk1, through the small streets of Aarhus, where 14 selected concave city corners were experienced. The tour is a psycho-geographical observation of the city through places you wouldn’t give a second look when passing.
To buy the book, please contact Galleri Image at info@galleriimage.dk.
Photobook Week Aarhus closes its 5th edition and announces Dummy Award Winner Stijn Van der Linden
The winning book is an essay on the concave city corner. (Look at how we printed it!)
This is an international competition for the best unpublished photobook mockups of the year. An eminent jury from all over the world has selected the best 18 dummies to be exhibited at Photobook Week Aarhus and other photo events around the world. The dummies showcase the state of the art in the field of photography on a global scale. During the festival, three finalists will present their dummies to a jury, who will pick a winner. The winning book will be published by PWA in collaboration with Kvadrat and the Reflektor platform, and will distributed by Idea Books, Amsterdam, in a media partnership with European Photography.
Nominees 2018
Alena Zandarova
Alessandra Carosi
Alice Garrett-Jones
Arturo Soto
Chris Plytas
Eoin Moylan
Gustaf Brooms
Hari Katragadda
Hiro Tanaka
Hyungsik Kim
Jens Schwartz
Kensaku Seki
Marjin J. Kuijper
Simon Roberts
Sofie Amalie Klougart
Stijn van der Linden
Toni Amengual
Yannis Karpouzis
Finalists 2018
Stijn van der Linden
Jens Schwarz
Kensaku Seki
International Preselection Jury
Ana Casas Broda, Visual Artist and Director of La Hydra, Mexico
Anne Elisabeth Toft, architect, Ph.D. and Lecturer at Aarhus School of Architecture, Aarhus
Beate Cegielska, Director of Galleri Image, Aarhus
Moritz Neumüller, Curator of Photobook Week Aarhus and Captain of the Curator Ship, Barcelona
Njusja de Gier, Curator at Kvadrat, Copenhagen
Ángel Luis González, CEO of Photoireland Foundation, Dublin
Thomas Licek, Reflektor Magazine and Publishing Platform
Jesper Rasmussen, Visual Artist, Aarhus
Andreas Müller-Pohle, Media Artist and Publisher, Berlin
David Solo, Photobook Collector, New York
Harvey Benge, Photographer, New Zealand
Award Jury
Harvey Benge
Harvey Benge is a New Zealand photographer who lives in Auckland and Paris. His pictures explore the strange anthropology of cities, the unusual and overlooked in the human landscape. He is the author of several dozens of photobooks and his work has been widely exhibited internationally.
Beate Cegielska
Beate Cegielska, artistic director of Galleri Image Since 1990, has curated numerous group and solo exhibitions by Danish and international artists in Europe, South Korea, China and India. For many years, she has also participated as a portfolio reviewer at different international photography festivals around the world.
Njusja de Gier
The internationally renowned design company Kvadrat has been leading the field in textile design and innovation since 1968. As Curator and Vice President Branding & Communication, Njusja de Gier is responsible for the global marketing and brand strategy. She has collaborated with artists, architects and designers to develop unique products and initiated the magazine and is managing editor of Interwoven.
Jesper Rasmussen
The Danish-based visual artist graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and has since the 1980s worked in sculpture, installation, graphics, photography, film, writing and publishing. Rasmussen is represented in several Danish museums, including ARoS, Arken and National Gallery of Denmark. He is also co-editor of the art journal Pist Protta.
David Solo
As a collector, enthusiast, and supporter of photo- and artist books, David Solo is one of the great champions and collectors of photobooks. The New York based collector possesses over 5000 books and is involved with numerous art and photography organizations, including Asia Art Archive, the Center for Book Arts and The Museum of Modern Art.
Daria Tuminas
Daria Tuminas From 2012 to 2014 co-curated Undercover – a group exhibition on Dutch photobooks and the process of their production. In 2014, Daria curated an exhibition Reading a Photobook. She was the guest editor of The Photobook Review #12 published by Aperture in spring 2017 with the focus on the relations between cinema and photobooks. Currently, Tuminas works as the head of Unseen Book Market and Dummy Award.
Terms & Conditions
Here you can read about important dates, how to submit your dummy and the requirements connected to submitting your dummy.
The submission deadline is June 30th 2018, and all submissions have to be received before this date. The submission is free of charge.
The shortlisted dummies have to be sent to Aarhus, Denmark, at the expense of each artist, in a timely manner. The transportation of the dummies to the international jury member will be taken on by PWA.
The 3 Finalists who will come to the festival to present their books to the Award Jury will be contacted in July and have to confirm their binding participation by August 15, 2018. PWA will contribute a flat fee of 300 – 500 Euros (according to distance) to help candidates pay for flights and accommodation in Aarhus.
The final presentation and Jurying will take place at Photobook Week Aarhus 2018, and participants have to be present in Aarhus on October 5th and 6th, 2018. The prize giving ceremony will be on October 6th at 7 pm.
Each jury member has the obligation to abstain from one or more voting phases, if they, or the jury, feel the necessity to do so when a conflict of interest is declared. Jury members are advised to disclose to the team any actual or perceived conflict as soon as it is detected to be dealt with swiftly.
The winning photo book will be released by April 2019. All 12 shortlisted books will be showcased at PWA 2018, PhotoIreland Festival 2019, at Kvadrat and other festivals.