In our last edition Photobook Week Aarhus 2022, we talked about the poetic cycle of life and death and the multiple crises that we are facing as a species. Our 10th anniversary of Photobook Week, however, will celebrate the positive aspects of life.

This does not mean we want to take the Anthropocene and its many dangers for mankind off our checklist. Rather, we believe that climate change, pollution and lack of biodiversity in itself are not the problem. It’s our lack of response that should worry us most. We all stand by and look, but nobody takes action. We are horrified, angry, or just tired. It seems that we need a new narrative to talk about the deplorable state of our planet in a way that people engage in the change and do not get frustrated. This is why we propose a new wave of optimism. A search for the joy of our existence that will include a look into the future, adapt the way children see the world, and talk about things that make us happy. We will pay homage to Albert Renger Patzsch’s book “Die Welt ist schön” (The World is Beautiful), published 95 years ago, and use Artificial Intelligence for image making, scripting and even to help us define the festival theme.

One of the main exhibitions this year will be on children’s photobooks. This show at Herning Art Museum will connect to the way young people consume and create visual narratives, in the past and today. The photobook as a medium of exchange, educational tool and artistic medium shows that an artefact of this kind can be simultaneously playful and serious. Other exhibitions and talks will concentrate on Photonovels in Western and Non-Western contexts, on Artificial Intelligence for photographic storytelling and on Architectural photobooks. On the geographical axis, we will look at Estonia and Lebanon, and we will continue to host the shortlisted books of the Kassel Dummy Award and Hong Kong Photobook Festival.

These events take place in libraries and museums all over the city of Aarhus and in the public space, and will bring international experts together with local artists and scholars.

PWA X: Future Revisited will be an open and inviting festival for the city of Aarhus and the international community of photobook lovers. It will be held from November 2 – 5, 2023, as a collaborative project between Galleri Image and the Aarhus School of Architecture.